Inferno
by Swiftchanted
Summary: There was a lot that she hadn't been ready for. She hadn't been ready for the Chitauri's descent on New York. She hadn't been ready for Gale's death or being a part of an all-star superhero team that saved the world on a regular basis. But what she really wasn't ready for was the aftermath, haunting her two years later, and the new darkness awaiting her. Sequel to Lights Out.
1. Dust Off Your Highest Hopes

**A/N: I really don't know what to say, because I'm buzzing with excitement. Hello! Hi! Aloha! Bonjour! I don't really know many more languages after that, so hey! Welcome to this little story that I've been so so so excited to finally present you with; it's honestly one of my favorites and fun fact: this is the first sequel I've ever written for any one of my stories, ever, so this is an event to be commemorated. For those of you who are just now seeing this, I'm Emily, I'm blonde and I really like Taylor Swift and the pink hair that I used to have (RIP, baby, RIP). This story is a sequel to one that I just finished called 'Lights Out', which, if you haven't read it, I emstrongly/em suggest that you do so you're not confused the entire time. You should also go watch the trailer I made for this on my YouTube, just because I worked so hard on it. I'm really excited to give this to you; the first chapter's name is incredibly punny, if you know what song it comes from. Go Google it afterwards, maybe you'll get a good laugh at my horrible attempts to make you laugh****.**

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><p><span>Chapter One: Dust Off Your Highest Hopes<span>

Sun poured into the thirteenth floor of the Avengers Tower, the sound of a painfully annoying beeping reverberating through the master suite. A low groan came from the tiny space in between the mountains of feather pillows and fluffy comforter, hardly a space between the two and making it look as though the king sized bed was uninhabited. That wasn't true, otherwise the alarm wouldn't have been set in the first place, and the person underneath the covers wouldn't be growing more and more agitated with each beep. By some miracle, it ceased, only to be replaced with the clear tone of Tony Stark's AI. "Miss Romanoff-Barton, I believe that this was the time you requested to be awoken," said JARVIS mechanically, his voice echoing out through the room.

"What time did I make that decision, JARVIS?" came the muffled grumble, hardly perceptible due to the fact that the sound was cut off by a feather pillow blocking the way.

"Around eight o'clock yesterday evening; you said that you wanted to be up early enough to squeeze in time in the gym this morning before lunch."

"JARVIS, never take anything that I say before ten-thirty seriously. I'm not thinking clearly."

"Duly noted, Miss Romanoff-Barton," the AI said.

The white comforter went hurtling forward, pillows being pushed out of the way as feet met the floor. Sunlight steadily poured in; as she made her way over to the window, she could see the city down below. One thing that she'd learned was that the city never really slept; it was always moving and alive in some way or another. Life never stopped or stilled in the heart of New York City, you just learned to find the mute button in your own special way. Rubbing her eyes with one hand and brushing the dark mop of wavy hair out of her face, she took a longing glance at all of the other buildings that met the Avengers Tower in height or stood below it. People and cars looked like toys even from the thirteenth floor, and even though it was only ten o'clock, people were moving like it was rush hour already.

"Miss Romanoff-Barton, Mr. Stark is requesting your presence in his lab," JARVIS' voice rang out once more.

"Already?"

"I'm afraid so. He claims that it's urgent."

The elevators in Avengers Tower were supposed to go at lightning speed—Tony's choice of description, not her own—but it still felt like an eternity on the way down to Tony's lab. The thing about Tony was that he never slept. He was an insomniac; the theory was that the more of a creative mastermind you are, the less time there is for you and therefore you have to sacrifice any and all precious free time you have. Occasionally, he'd come bursting in the room at three, four am, still wide awake and insisting that if he didn't have her accuracy statistics, the world would cease to exist. It wasn't that weird anymore, all of Tony's weird antics. It was just another thing to grow accustomed to; just like living thirteen stories up with a lovely view of the city below, being surrounded by such groundbreaking technological advances on a daily basis and knowing that you'd saved the world from an extraterrestrial apocalyptic catastrophe.

As the doors slid open smoothly, a faint ding sounded over head. She padded along the floor, pulling the cardigan that she had bought with Pepper that had turned out to be two sizes too big, but proved to be a fantastic asset when strolling around the tower that constantly stayed cold tighter across her chest. Tony was standing in front of something—she assumed his latest and greatest—with his back to her, the sound of him making a dent in what was probably another energy drink. "Your tolerance is probably already shot for the day, and it's not even noon yet," she declared matter-of-factly, and the can hit the floor almost instantly.

Tony whipped around, his eyes wide. He seemed a hell of a lot more relieved once he took in the sight of her staring at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised. One of his hands resting over his chest, he slouched his body and let out a long sigh of relief. "Jesus, Katniss, I thought you were Pepper," he said, his voice full of air as he tried to catch his breath.

"Even after you called for me?"

Tony stooped down to pick up the energy drink can, tossing it over in the direction of the trash. Whether or not it made it was a mystery to her. "You always say it yourself, baby bird," he grunted. "I'm getting to be an old man."

"You're forty-four."

"I'm over the hill and I'm not slowing down."

Katniss crossed her arms, eyes flitting around the lab. It was a mess and that was an understatement. Along with his insomnia, Tony had also become something like a slob. It was completely understandable; when one lived in the lab and didn't care about anything but creating and inventing, there was little time for small luxuries such as mopping. There were empty energy drink cans and water bottles strewn all over the tables, various parts and tools lying around in the most random places. "What does Bruce say about this mess?" she found herself asking. No wonder Bruce was always in the lab closer to the penthouse; Tony's was a pigsty.

"Bruce hardly ever comes down here and bothers me, baby bird. I'm along the lines of engineer, he's more or less scientist," Tony explained, waving his hands around madly in an attempt to get his point across. "You've been with us for two years; I thought you would have figured that much out by now."

Knowing that arguing with Tony was a mute point, and telling him that the real reason Bruce probably wasn't working in his lab was because Tony went crazy, he pulled out every stop along the way wouldn't do any extra good. Instead, she just gave him a look. "You're the one who called me in here, remember?" she reminded him, the tone in her voice growing sharper and colder by the second. A lot of things had changed, but Tony Stark's capabilities of annoying her in two-point-five seconds had not.

Tony snapped his fingers, nodding. "Oh, yeah, that. Clint called me, said he and Natasha were in town. They could get here at any given moment; your mother's all for being punctual, you know." Katniss blinked a few times, trying to let that sink in. Tony caught the blank-look on her face, his own expression falling. "I didn't mean to scare you with that, I just thought I'd let you know before they stroll in and you're still in your pajamas."

Katniss cleared her throat. "You might want to take your own advice on that one," she pointed out, gesturing at Tony's ratty Black Sabbath t-shirt and sweatpants that he'd worn for five days straight. His cheeks flushed a little, but he did his best to play it off by dismissing her with the wave of his hand.

"Go, go. I'll be ready; you just make sure you are. God forbid Natasha deems me an unsuitable caretaker," he grumbled bitterly under his breath. Katniss chuckled to herself, turning around and making her way back to the elevator.

"Doesn't she already?" she called over her shoulder, smirking as she made her way through the doors of the elevator. She pressed the thirteenth floor button, the metal doors sliding together and giving her only a quick glance at the dead-set expression on Tony's face, lips drawn into a line and eyes giving her a knowing look. That was typical Tony.

The ride back up to her room went a lot faster than her initial descent. Katniss combed back through her memory, trying to recall the last time that she'd seen her mother and father face to face. Most of the time, it was letters, phone calls or the ever-so-handy Skype call that Tony had tried to explain to her, growing frustrated with every question she raised about the program—she'd had a lot, too. Fury and SHIELD had been doing their best to keep the two of them busy, and Katniss could understand that. Natasha's disappearance and then her revival had thrown them for a bit of a loop, it had given them the upper hand with all of their rivals since the general consensus was that the Black Widow was dead. It had certainly kept Strike Team Delta busy, that was for sure. Clint and Natasha were always jetting off to some new country for some new mission; the cycle was get back from one mission just to return to another.

Katniss would have been lying if she said she didn't miss her parents. They didn't live in Avengers Tower like she and Bruce did; there was the occasional visit, like today would be, or they'd stop in for a few weeks and room while they were on a break—probably one that Natasha had threatened Fury into giving them, but other than that, they were always on the go. The past two years hadn't been boring without them, though. Living with Tony was anything but.

The perks of being his goddaughter meant that in a way, he treated her like she was his own child or some sort of national treasure since she was Natasha's, and he seemed to value his life enough to care for her in such a way. There was always something new going on; whether it was testing out the new bows that he'd made with their various features that stunned and scared her all at the same time, going out in the city and exploring all of the things that it had to offer, going out with Tony to any of his various appearances—Clint was never happy about hearing that facet of news but she didn't care, she had a blast—or just sticking to lying in the king sized bed in her room and flipping channels. Life never got boring. She liked to think that she went from one extreme to the other and Tony was making that adjustment as comfortable and extravagant as he possibly could. Then there was Pepper, who, true to Natasha's word, had stuck onto her like glue. She was everything that Katniss wasn't: beautiful, successful, intelligent and nicer than Bruce at his mellow point. But she had proved to be a good friend, and Katniss had warmed up to her almost instantly. Being around Pepper had brought out a side in her that she hadn't realized lay dormant inside of her.

Once the elevator doors peeled back once more, Katniss was strolling through her suite with her beeline's destination the walk-in closet. Humming the whole way, she internally tried to decide what she'd have time for and what she wouldn't. Going to the gym was a necessity; she hadn't lifted a finger, much less rolled out of bed in over two days and her muscles were aching for her to use them again. "JARVIS," she called out to the AI system. "What time did Clint and Natasha say they were going to get here?"

JARVIS replied, "According to the call your father made Mr. Stark earlier, they claimed they would arrive sometime around lunch."

Katniss pondered that thought before diving back through the drawers inside the closet. "They know where the gym is if they want to find me," she muttered to herself, pulling out a pair of compression shorts. She threw her cardigan somewhere in the closet, the sound of clothes on hangers swinging back and forth as the cardigan collided with them before dropping to the floor. Shimmying into her compression shorts and her typical workout tank top, she tossed her hair into a ponytail and started looking for her favorite pair of sneakers, a great invention that Tony and Pepper had introduced her to. It was a lot less of a hassle than the boots had been.

Of course, they were misplaced. Quickly running into her bathroom and searching for them, she returned with her mouth full of toothpaste. Her toothbrush was hanging out of her mouth as she attempted to multitask, searching for the shoes up underneath everything and brush her teeth at the same time. She spotted the toes of her sneakers peeking out from underneath the bed skirt, smiling victoriously. "JARVIS, can you make sure that the gym downstairs is empty?" she asked, her words garbled as she sat down on the edge of her bed and slid her shoes on as best as she could without using her hands.

"The gym is clear, Miss Romanoff-Barton," he confirmed. "Shall I unlock it for you?"

"That would be perfect."

Katniss threw the toothbrush down in the bathroom, spitting out the excess toothpaste and letting the water splash over it only for a split second before striding over to the elevator and mashing down on the button a lot more forcefully than she'd intended. It took a moment, but once the elevator doors opened, she was treated to the sight of Bruce, who already looked five times more composed than she did.

Her cheeks turned red as she stepped in, the awkwardness already swallowing up the confined space. Instead of acting on that discomfort that she knew he had to be feeling, he slid over and allowed her some room, choosing to stare straight ahead while she pressed her floor's button. "You're going to work out, I take it?" Bruce asked, cutting the silence clean in half. Katniss' head rose, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. He gestured towards her outfit with his eyes, a knowing look. "You're not going to do paperwork or be Tony's lab rat in that kind of outfit, Kat."

"Right," she said, rocking back on her heels as the lurch of the elevator took her slightly off guard. After a moment of silence, she decided to ask a question of her own. "And you? Where are you off to?" His head turned in her direction, and she shrugged. "You're not going to do tuck and rolls and fire arrows at things in a button down and Bermuda shorts, Bruce."

"Touché," he admitted in resignation. "I'm stopping by Natasha and Clint's floor, just to make sure it's straightened up, seeing as how the last time it was used Tony had silly string and built blanket forts and I doubt they want to come home to that. I'm almost positive Pepper's got it handled, but I figured I'd give her a little help."

"That's sweet," Katniss said, before immediately jumping to correct herself. "I mean, that's, you know, nice that you'd offer to do that. I'm sure she appreciates that." She could feel the heat once again rising in her cheeks, staring down at her feet.

Being with Bruce had never been a problem. She and Bruce were still something like best friends and it was incredibly easy for the two of them to get along, joking and laughing about the little things. He'd been something like a sanity reassurance; whenever Tony went crazy on a kick or Pepper was agitating her about going shopping, she'd go to Bruce and have a drink with him, laughing at bad reality TV or going out for pizza. It was only when it was just the two of them alone, specifically in close spaces that it got awkward for her. Now was one of those moments, especially because there was a lack of words for the two of them to exchange.

To Katniss' relief, the elevator came to a smooth stop and a small ping signaled the doors' opening. She was quick to rush out, not bothering to turn around and acknowledge his call of "Shoot straight!" Rude as it might have been, she knew that she had to get going. She wasn't going to get in any alone time in the gym once Clint and Natasha showed up and there was only one gym with archery simulations—the one everyone loved to use. JARVIS, being the ever-so-helpful-AI that he was, had already unlocked the gym for her and she slipped through the heavy doors with ease.

Being back in the gym felt like slipping on an old pair of shoes, and picking up her bow was like lying on Tony's memory-foam mattress. She smiled to herself as she slung a quiver of arrows resting up against the equipment wall over her shoulder, making her way into the sim room as Tony so proudly called it, even though he'd stolen the idea from the one that they had on the Helicarrier. Walking in, the glass doors slid shut behind her and the small panel popped up, displaying the options for simulations. Archery was already under favorites, since she'd been the only inhabitant in the gym for months, and she set it to her usual settings. "Hey JARVIS, you mind playing my workout playlist?" she called out as she walked to the center of the room.

"As you wish, Miss Romanoff-Barton." The simulation lights rose, scanning over the room as JARVIS began to play her workout playlist. Tony and Bruce had heavily affected her music tastes, most of it coming straight off of Tony's favorites. Something about classic rock or heavy metal really got her adrenaline pumping.

Shooting at the simulation targets was a lot more fun than firing at the stationary ones in Katniss' opinion. It was more realistic; it got her blood pumping and really pushed her to do more. It was harder aiming at a moving target, and if there was one thing that she knew very well, moving targets were the only kind of targets there were. Tony had programmed for some of them to fire simulation bullets or other weapons at her—some of them had hammers, others had bows and arrows of their own, there were shields and beams of false energy, only capable of knocking her backwards at most. Drawing arrow after arrow, Katniss fired to the tempo of the ACDC song that was blasting out through the room, doing her best to shoot straight through the chest or through the eyes. Most of the time, shooting with the simulations running involved a lot of floor work—getting down on her knees and the occasional tuck and roll that she had mastered and often did just because she found it fun—and since the room was a lot larger than the one she'd messed around with a few years back on the Helicarrier, there was also a good bit of running.

Ducking past one of the simulation bows that came whizzing at her head, she followed the running simulation that was on a platform over her head. The ones that had height on her were the trickiest, since they were capable of ducking behind the pillars and vanishing. Biting down on her lip, she followed his pace with the arrow. Right when she thought she had him, she let the arrow fly and watched it embed itself in one of the pillars. "Dammit," she mumbled to herself, pulling another arrow from the quiver and stringing it up as she looked around for her next target.

She felt a slight tap on her shoulder, and was stunned that Tony had had the audacity to program these things to come up and be able to actually touch her. Whipping around, ready to shoot, she almost released the arrow before she realized that it wasn't a simulation hologram behind her. Instead, it was just Steve Rogers, a terrified look in his eyes as he looked at the arrowhead that was pointed directly at his chest.

"Oh my god," she stammered out, immediately lowering the bow and letting it and the arrow fall from her hand in shock. "JARVIS, kill the music!" The music stopped as she stepped away from Steve, brushing the flyaway hairs out of her face. "I am _so—"_

"Sorry?" he finished, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Probably shouldn't have snuck up on you."

"Yeah, no kidding," she mumbled, kneeling down to collect the fallen arrow and her bow. "You got lucky that I didn't fire, I was in the zone."

"I saw." The tone in Steve's voice was dry, condescending, and truthfully, irritating. She raised up from the floor slowly, her eyes narrowed into slits as she made eye contact with him.

"Who invited you here?"

"No one, I live here."

"I live here," she corrected him. "You just drop in whenever you feel like and spend the night. You're…you're like the drunken uncle or something." She pushed past him, her shoulder bumping into his purposefully.

She didn't want to see Steve. Had she known that he was going to walk in out of the blue; she would have made JARVIS put her entire floor on lockdown and holed up until he left. She would have taken the awkward elevator ride with Bruce all the way down to hell before she spent time with Steve, expected or not. He, of course, was hot on her heels like a lost puppy as she hung up the arrow quiver and bow on the equipment wall, doing her best to avoid him. "You know, you used to be better at avoiding people," he pointed out as she stormed out of the gym, right behind her.

Not stopping, she tossed her head over her shoulder and shot him a glare. "How would you know?" she hissed. "I've _been_ avoiding you."

Right about the time that she had turned back around, she found herself colliding with another figure. She knew every inch of the lobby outside the gym; hell, she knew every inch of the Avengers Tower period, and there wasn't any sort of column or object as tall as she was right in that spot. Looking up as she brushed her hands over the top of her head, she was treated to the sight of a slightly confused Clint Barton. She expelled all of the built up stress from seeing Steve out of her in a sigh, smiling. "Dad," she said, leaning over to hug him.

Clint returned it briefly, giving her a thin lipped smile. "Hey kiddo," he responded.

"Don't really think you can call her that much anymore, Barton," teased another voice, one that Katniss had hardly heard in forever. It took only seconds for her to project herself into her mother's embrace, even if Natasha wasn't that big on hugging. She peeled off of her faster than she had Clint, taking into account the fact that she was pouring sweat.

"Good to see you, Rogers," Katniss overheard Clint say, and couldn't fight the eye roll and scoff that rose up in her throat. Natasha just gave her a look, one of her eyebrows lifted out of curiosity. Katniss shook her head as subtly as she could without Steve or Clint picking up on it.

Natasha, being the good human she had the capabilities of being, cleared her throat and spoke up. "Bruce sent us to get you on our way up," she explained. "Where's Tony?"

Katniss shrugged, resting one of her hands on her hips. "Upstairs, probably holing up in his lab like he always does. Why?"

"We need to talk to you two," Clint cut in, looking over at Steve. "Actually, we need to talk to all of you. In private."

"About what?" Katniss asked, her eyebrows furrowing together once more.

"Clint, not—"

"It's about Fury."

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><p><strong>AN: Really, I waste no time. I honestly don't know where to take this author's note, so I guess I'll just start here: what did you guys think? I tried to make this not-so-exposition-y, but it's been two years since we've hung out with these guys and it had to be done. Tony's…crazy, as per usual, that's probably the one thing that didn't change (again, another reference to the song that inspired the title as a joke—hint, it's by Taylor Swift). But yeah, be sure to let me know what you thought of this incredibly long first chapter back into the wonderful world! Katniss got her name changed, what? Bruce and Katniss awkwardness? Steve and Katniss at each other's throats essentially, what happened there? (If you're new here, you'll know that I refer to these as Bruceniss and Steveniss.) And what's Fury got to do with anything? Let me know your thoughts on all of this and if you liked it in that pretty little review. Otherwise, Katniss is not-so-accidentally going to let that arrow fly.**


	2. Trouble in Paradise

**A/N: So this is late; I intended on uploading this Friday but that really didn't happen, seeing as how I was in Tennessee visiting family that I hadn't seen since Christmas. But, fear not, I wrote this all the way home and it's still getting uploaded. You won't have to wait as long for an update either since this is kind of late. But anyways. Thank you so much for all of your sweet reviews and the number of follows/favorites you all gave this! That's so sweet, I'm really glad to see that you're responding pretty well in my opinion to this story. It only gets crazier from here folks. I won't tie you up any longer, read! Enjoy!**

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><p><span>Chapter Two: Trouble in Paradise<span>

Katniss had thought her elevator ride with Bruce had been awkward; in reality, it was nothing compared to this. She could feel her skin crawl with every glance that Steve took her way, the snarl building up in the back of her throat as the elevator gained altitude. It was completely silent, of course, since Clint's occasional chatty self had clammed up a lot earlier than usual in his visits. Katniss wanted nothing more than to sink all the way through the floor or blend in with the walls, anything to get Steve's eyes off of her.

Seeing Steve was like a direct kick to the mouth. She had devoted so much time over the past year and a half to strictly avoiding him that being back in his presence was remotely similar to building a house of cards for someone to blow them over like a birthday candle. Steve had become a sour taste in her mouth that no matter how hard she tried, she could never get rid of. Initially, he had been part of the decision she made to move to New York. Being near him was something that at the time, she had wanted, and once things fell completely through the floor with them, was something that made her flesh crawl. She didn't want to see him, didn't want to be near him, didn't even want to know that he was still alive. Whenever he made stops by the Tower, she either made sure she was out and about killing time or put her floor off limits. Tony always rolled his eyes and asked her why she felt the need to lock the whole floor down whenever Steve came, and he never did buy the whole "_no interruption needed cleaning session_" excuse. Katniss knew the precautions she needed to take. Steve was just as bitter, but he was also much more lenient and apt to approach her. On the opposite end, you couldn't get Katniss to poke him with a ten foot pole.

Like most arguments and fights that Katniss found herself wound up in, the root of the problem had been SHIELD. Her desire to work as an agent had quickly fizzled out, and she found that she was much more content doing consultant work, only being called in when needed. It suited her; she didn't do well under such intense pressure, especially after the New York debacle, and in the back of her mind, Katniss knew she wasn't truly prepared for the physical and emotional baggage of being a field agent. Steve on the other hand, had taken her completely aback by saying that he was going to begin working for SHIELD, and not just the consultant work either. Steve had been adamant about getting her off of the whole agent career path and when he told Katniss he was leaving in a few days to go to DC, she had been beyond pissed.

The argument that followed had been nothing short of loud; their little screaming match had been so loud that Tony had run down to the parlor with a crowbar—his evidently effective choice of a weapon—because he'd assumed that Loki had broken out of his cell in Asgard and come back for round two. Names and obscenities were being thrown around loosely as they lunged for each other's throats the whole time. The both of them tried arguing the point that the other should follow their steps, and when that went sour, it turned to pointing fingers and calling out accusations. It eventually ended with Katniss screaming that she hoped he didn't die out in DC, because she sure as hell wasn't coming to help his ass.

To say that she held a grudge wasn't politically correct; she had cooled down a few months after his departure. It was the snide little comments and dirty looks and fights over dinner that kept the hate alive. She never really got past all of the additional instances that made her despise him even more, and every time she saw his name somewhere, she could feel the anger rushing through her bloodstream.

It was pretty obvious how thick the tension was in the elevator. Katniss was all but backed up into the wall, doing her best to put as much distance between her and Steve as physically possible. Natasha was studying her fingernails, clearly unfazed by the awkwardness. Clint, however, rolled all of his weight onto his left leg and cleared his throat. Everyone's eyes were on him in a second. "How long _is_ this damn ride?" he grumbled. Natasha rolled her eyes, Steve shrugged, and Katniss bit down harder on her lower lip.

Finally, the elevator came to a smooth stop, the doors peeling back. Katniss chuckled to herself as she caught sight of Tony on the far end of the room, doing his best to change his pants and fiddle with whatever it was he was working on. "Really, Anthony?" sighed Natasha. Tony jumped nearly ten feet in the air, his wrench falling clean out of his hands and knocking into his project.

Resting a hand over his chest, he deliberately swiveled his head around slowly in Natasha's direction. "Like mother, like daughter," he said spitefully.

Natasha folded her arms over her chest. "She was judging you for your poor efforts in keeping yourself together too?" she asked, her voice going up an octave as she mocked him. "Definitely my child."

Katniss watched as Clint looked around the room, clearly displeased with what he saw. The penthouse was hardly any better than the lab; Tony didn't exactly know how to keep things neat and orderly and refrained from cleaning as much as possible. "Wow Tony, you've definitely gotten…worse," Clint said.

"I love you too, bird brain."

"Okay," Steve interrupted from his place next to the elevator entrance, Katniss having to hold back her scoff rising in her throat. "Clint, you said you were here about Fur—"

"Whoa there big guy," Tony interrupted, eyes wide and holding his hand out to stop Steve from going any farther. Throwing a quick glance at him over her shoulder, Katniss could see that he was confused. She smirked, her ponytail almost hitting her in the face when she snapped her head back to its original direction as she sat down on the edge of Tony's couch. Tony himself was tapping away on one of his monitors, enabling all of the soundproof and security capabilities on the room that he could. When he finished, he then gestured towards Clint to continue in a showy manner. Natasha, who was perched on the arm of the couch, glared at Tony for emphasis.

"We're not necessarily here about Fury," he explained, dropping his clasped hands into his lap. "Technically we're here about Alexander Pierce."

Katniss' eyebrows knitted together. "Who?" she asked, eyes flitting over all of the other people in the room. No one seemed to want to respond, so she looked directly at Clint. "Who is Alexander Pierce?"

"He's the senior official over SHIELD," Natasha said, never taking her eyes off of the window she'd fixated them on. "He's not really over Fury, but—"

"He's as good as, Tasha. Pierce has the in with the Council members; Fury's asked them for more info on Insight and they aren't budging. Pierce is stringing them along like puppets, I'm telling you." Clint's voice was an exasperated whine in Katniss' opinion; like he had tried to explain this to Natasha a hundred times but she still wasn't buying it.

"I never said I didn't believe you. What I'm saying is—"

"Yes, yes, I know, '_Fury still has control.'_ Are we sure that's going to last forever though?"

"The Council didn't take anything that came out of Nick's mouth into account before, Clint, it's not just some random change in decision making!"

"When did you start sitting in on Council meetings?"

"When did _you_ become Pierce's gopher?"

Katniss was incredibly uncomfortable as Clint and Natasha went back and forth, nearly chopping each other's heads off with their sharp responses hurtling around. It was pretty clear that they had had this argument before, judging by their agitated expressions and tired eyes. Tony was quick to butt in. "Okay!" he bellowed, cutting the two of them off. Natasha went back to staring in the opposite direction, Clint's eyes focusing on the floor. Tony's eyes went back and forth between the two of them. "Jesus, trouble in paradise maybe?"

"Stark," Natasha growled dangerously under her breath.

Steve, ever one to try and ease the tension, spoke up. "What exactly is Insight anyways?"

"We don't exactly know for sure. It's pretty tight lipped around the Triskelion, not many people know anything about it after its name and the fact that it's got a whole wing now off limits. Insight's got a high level clearance to know the details; it's got something to do with Helicarriers and satellites and eliminating threats, but that's all I can really say. I couldn't wire tap into the conversations for long, otherwise I'd get caught. My best bet is that you'll be the first to know," Natasha spilled, the corners of her lips twitching as her head tilted in Steve's direction. "He knows you won't ask more than need be. Or he just really underestimates your capacity of curiosity."

"So what, you want me to go in and try to crack Fury?" Steve asked, puzzled.

"What good would it be to crack Fury?" Tony interrupted. "You said it yourself, Fury hardly knows anything himself about the program."

"Fury knows what he needs to," Clint piped back up, still staring at the floor. "He's kept a lot of it on a need to know basis with Pierce from what Natasha and I understand and that's really coming to bite him in the ass."

Tony shrugged. "Right now I'm not seeing why this is a big issue. What's new; the Council is keeping secrets from Fury, Fury is keeping secrets from us, this is all déjà vu. I can practically _hear_ Loki taunting us from above," he drawled.

"You're having that business banquet party thing tomorrow night, right?" Natasha asked.

"Yes," Katniss cut in before Tony could, finally feeling like she was of some use again. All of their field talk once again reminded her that she wasn't an agent and automatically excluded her from the conversation. Everyone's eyes fell on her; Clint's mouth drawn in a tight grimace. _Right, he wouldn't be too happy about hearing she was going to another one of Tony's business related things._

"Invite Fury," Natasha said. "Send a drone with the invite, write it in the skyline, just make sure that eye patch is close enough to you to touch. If he comes and he's not in Pierce's vicinity, there's more of a chance that he'll tell us about Insight and what's going on."

Clint nodded. "The last time we sat around and waited for something, gods and aliens came down from the heavens to kick our ass. The amount of shade coming off of this is dark enough to where we can't see, and that never gives me a good feeling about anything."

Tony let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll invite Captain Hook to the banquet. But you are the one who gets to deal with him, Natasha, not me. I'm pretty sure Fury would like to sling me across a football field after that last chain email I sent him."

**. . .**

Natasha and Clint had brought bags, which was both a blessing and a curse wrapped into one. It was a blessing because it meant seeing Tony do physical labor and the fact that she got to spend a little more time with her parents. It was a curse because not only did she have to give up precious gym time alone when she wanted it, but because Clint and Natasha loved to try and read her like she was some sort of mission debrief, reading through all of the little mechanisms right down to the nitty gritty. Katniss wasn't about that; she preferred the vagueness, but of course, her approval was rarely sought.

After their little team meeting, which had been more awkward than anything, Katniss was quick to bury herself back downstairs in the gym. It was the best way to get away from her thoughts, really, and those were on an overload after talking about SHIELD and Alexander Pierce and Fury.

She thought that by refusing to enlist as a SHIELD agent she wouldn't ever be dragged into the technicalities of it again. Being a consultant essentially meant she would only be forced to sit in on things related to the Avengers, operate only as a part of the Avengers unit and all other SHIELD related things didn't touch her. New York had sent her for a tailspin and that was mainly why she'd refused taking the position. But for some reason, all things SHIELD kept coming around full circle and yanking her in head first.

Grinding her teeth together, Katniss punched the bag in front of her again. The wraps on her hands had to be done poorly, seeing as how they were screaming more than usual. That didn't matter though; the pain of it all was distracting. Distracting enough to keep her thoughts off of SHIELD. She reached up to wipe the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist before delivering another blow to the punching bag, another after another. Katniss stepped back for a second, shaking out her aching hands in hopes that would rid them of the tingling feeling. No such luck. Frustrated, she randomly kicked the side of the bag with her foot.

"Didn't realize you were such a big fan of the punching bag," came a raspy voice on the other side of the bag.

Katniss shook her head, retaking her stance and hitting the bag as hard as she could. "Not really a fan of it," she said in between the iron clench of her teeth. "Good stress reliever."

"That's true, but if you keep hitting that hard, you're going to snap your hand clean in half."

"Who are you, my mother?"

Natasha's head appeared from behind the bag, holding it in place to keep Katniss from hitting it again. She had a knowing look on her face; one of her eyebrows lifted and the beginnings of a smirk over her lips. Katniss blushed, hardly making a dent in the redness that had come from her working up a sweat. "Right, sorry."

"Clint wanted to make sure you were okay, you were kind of quiet during the impromptu meeting earlier," Natasha began.

Katniss shrugged one of her shoulders. "Me being quiet is the least of his problems. I'm not much of a wordy one anyways; I take after him in that department."

"So nothing's bothering you, then?"

Her face twisted into a grimace. Natasha gave a subtle nod, as if she was proving a point. Katniss let out a long sigh. "It's just…I really didn't want to have to deal with Steve today, and you and Dad coming is a nice surprise and all but when you come in the name of SHIELD, I feel like the pawn out of place and it's like I don't belong in the meetings, then there's that banquet tomorrow and I can hear Clint's fussing already, and did I mention that seeing Steve was the last of my damn worries?" Out of anger, one of her balled up fists flew out of her control and met the bag hard.

"Your hair is darker," Natasha commented, completely out of left field. Katniss stared up at her puzzled.

"What?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.

"Your hair. It's a lot darker than it usually is, did you dye it?"

"Pepper and I do this once every two months, why is…_what_?" Katniss asked, confused as she brushed a few flyaway hairs out of her face.

"You see how easy it is to throw your thought process through a loop? All you have to do is occupy yourself with something else, preferably something that grabs you off guard." Natasha then began to strip off the tan leather jacket that she always seemed to have on whenever she wasn't on business. "Which is why," she continued. "You and I are going to spar."

Katniss wasn't entirely sure she'd heard Natasha right. Spar? _Her_? Clint was Natasha's sparring partner, no ifs ands or buts about it. It was almost an unspoken rule that they all had; you didn't spar with Natasha because only Clint could handle her, just barely at that. Natasha seemed to be dead serious on this one. "Nat—Mom, no, I can't, I'm not going to—"

Natasha was quick to cut her off. "Yes you can, and yes, you are." She then laughed. "What, are you afraid I'm going to hurt you?"

"I don't know if you've ever seen Clint when you get done with him after the sparring sessions the two of you have, but he looks as though he's been hit by a truck."

Again, another chuckle fell past Natasha's lips as she led Katniss to the center of the room, away from the punching bag. "Sweetie, you really don't think that it's just sparring anymore, do you?"

Katniss' face went blood red as Natasha took advantage of her vulnerability, swinging first. Luckily, she'd seen Natasha's fist coming straight for her and ducked it, barely missing it as she felt the wind from the punch blow past. She straightened out, staring at her mother bewildered. She fought dirty, Natasha. She was willing to do anything for the upper hand; no wonder Clint came out of fights the way that he did. Natasha just smirked, lifting another eyebrow. "You're actually going to kill me," Katniss breathed.

"Fight back and we'll see," Natasha replied, before moving her hand in an attempt to clock Katniss right underneath her jaw. Katniss caught her fist, pushing it back down with one hand and using her foot to swipe at Natasha's knees. The thing about Natasha's fighting technique was that she used her size to her complete and total advantage. She lived up to the name of Black Widow, moving about as skilled and stealthily as her arachnid namesake might. Katniss caught on quickly that this was not an average sparring session; Natasha was actually fighting to kill. She wasn't holding back despite the fact that it was her daughter, in fact, that seemed to be motivating her even more to render Katniss immobile. One of Natasha's legs looped around Katniss', pulling her arm downwards as she catapulted the two of them towards the ground in a neat roll. Katniss rolled over on her side hard, hands clawing to break out of Natasha's grip. Katniss ground her teeth together, trying to make it work, but Natasha wasn't budging. Instead, she was doing her best to pin Katniss flat on her back. In retaliation, Katniss jammed one of her hands down into Natasha's stomach and used it to slide up, desperate to top her opponent and win their match.

Natasha fought dirty though, so that wasn't going to work in any circumstance. One of her hands moved up behind Katniss' head, yanking hard on the ponytail and sending her head backwards. Katniss yelped out in pain; from where she had been biting down so hard on her lip, she was pretty sure that she'd drawn blood. She couldn't pry Natasha's hand off of her hair, so in the best form of payback she could think of, Katniss leaned down and bit Natasha. Natasha wasn't one to scream, but even Katniss could hear the strangled sort of noise come from the back of her throat. Her mouth still locked around Natasha's flesh, Katniss did her best to reclaim her ponytail and call it a victory. Her mother, on the other hand, wasn't having that. Natasha yanked a second time on Katniss' ponytail, harder that time, pulling her teeth off of her arm. With that, Natasha sat straight up and slammed Katniss on her side to the ground, their tangled legs keeping her pinned there. "One…two…three," Natasha hissed out through her clenched teeth.

Katniss lay on the ground, immobile. Her head hurt, her legs her; hell, every inch of her body hurt. A small moan escaped her, and Natasha was quick to untangle them. She was up on her feet in a quick minute, while Katniss didn't move. "Come on," said Natasha. "Get up." She'd extended a hand to her daughter, and even though Katniss thought her arm was going to fall off her body when she reached for it, she found it a lot easier to pull herself up.

Natasha was casually pushing her hair behind her ears, looking just as normal as she had when she strolled in earlier. Katniss was almost positive that she hadn't even broken a sweat doing all that. "And that right there is why no one but Clint spars with you," Katniss grumbled bitterly, her breath only coming to her in short, quick gasps. Natasha gave a toothless smile.

"Sorry if I actually hurt you."

"Tell that to my aching limbs."

Natasha waved the thought off with her hand, as if she was actually dispelling the idea from the air. "Go take a nap or something; you've worked yourself near the breaking point already."

"Yeah, no kidding," Katniss replied as she began to walk back over to where her stuff was. "Trust me, you'll be lucky if you can even pull me out of bed for the rest of the day, and it's only twelve-fifteen."

As she made her way over to her bag, Katniss could feel the muscles in her leg locking up. "For the love of god," she muttered under her breath, stopping short in her tracks. The pain was unreal in her legs, more so than anywhere else. She took another cautious step forward as a test and nearly shrieked in pain; it felt as though her muscles had ironed themselves out straight and her joints had locked up. The aching everywhere else didn't blend well with the excruciating pain in her legs, and she bent forward to try to catch her breath.

She stood there like that for a minute, the gym so silent that it would have been possible to hear a hair fall off her head and land on the ground. "Everything alright?" Natasha finally asked her voice soft enough to mistake it for something outside on the streets.

Katniss didn't respond for a moment, trying to think through the pain and waiting on it to subside. She could hear her mother's tentative step forward, but no sooner had that happened did Katniss feel like she could straighten up and walk again. Grabbing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder quickly, she turned around to see the genuine expressions of concern colored on Natasha's usually stoic face. "I'm fine," Katniss said, forcing a smile onto her face. "Really, I am."

As she all but ran out of the gym, leaving her mother behind, Katniss wasn't so sure how much she'd actually meant that.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh boy oh boy, where do we even begin? I guess I'll just start by saying that next chapter will honestly be such a blast to write due to what I have planned for it, so you should totally review. What do you think about the reasoning behind Steve and Katniss' breakup? Honestly it seems kind of lame in retrospect but it'll make more sense as to why it was such a big deal to them at the time later on. I love love love writing Katasha, and I loved how that fight was a literal death match. I loved it, not gonna lie. What do you think is up with Katniss, there at the end where she couldn't walk? How do you think that banquet is going to go? Most of the group was back together and they're already fighting, what do you think is going to happen later with that sort of stressed dynamic? I refer to the five of them as my Core Five because they're my babies in this story. Anyways, review review review! I love reading them and they really do make me write faster, even with school in the way. If you don't review, Natasha's coming to spar with you against your will.**


	3. Walking Into the Lion's Mouth

**A/N: Why hello my beautifuls! I'm sort of on time this week (everybody say yeahhhh) and your reviews continue to stun me. They just make me smile a whole whole lot, okay? Don't stop. This chapter is literally my favorite so far and I hope it does things to you too. I'm doing my best to keep you on your toes, and what happens in this chapter really starts to set the stage for the story, so please keep your eyes open! Also, this was asked a little while ago by my lovely vulnera-sapientia but this story is going to follow bits and pieces of the Iron Man 3 and Winter Soldier events as well as take on a life of its own. Also, I just love this chapter's title (still has nothing on Hell Hath No Fury Like Nick Fury but when will anything ever) because it's got such a powerful meaning later on. You'll see why, just keep on reading. ;)**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Three: Walking Into the Lion's Mouth<span>

Twirling one of the diamond earrings she had on absentmindedly, Katniss blinked a few times, her reflection following suit. Pepper was behind her, straightening out the edges at the bottom of her dress. Every time one of Tony's business banquets or galas rolled around, it was typically seen as an excuse to go all out and glam it up a little. Pepper, who was the dictionary definition of a girly-girl, found a thorough amusement in using Katniss as her own personal Barbie. Katniss didn't entirely mind; Pepper never failed in making her struggle to guess who she was whenever she was directed towards a mirror and let free.

Tonight was no exception; Pepper had pulled out all the stops and gotten her a dress that was much more exquisite than this party was bound to be. It was long and black, a layered skirt with tiers of lace and the same lace trailing over her chest. Judging by the way Pepper had gingerly slipped her into it gave the indication it was designer, nothing short of Tony's desires. Katniss had given her hand at a more intricate braid her mother had taught her years ago, finding a sense of solace in putting her hair in some form of a braid. It had been awhile since she had worn it like that. It usually had a negative connotation and she had a newfound appreciation for her natural hair. With the braids resting over and across the crown of her head, she had the rest falling down the back in curls, Pepper's touch. Makeup was also Pepper's forte; Katniss would have thought her crazy if she allowed her at the many products all alone. Once Pepper's handiwork was done, Katniss looked like a work of art. She could hardly recognize herself, and that was how she liked it.

"Did you ever find out if Fury was coming?" Katniss asked, gnawing down on her lower lip that had already been painted with one of the thousands of tubes of lipstick Pepper owned, a darker, blood-red color. Pepper hummed in response.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. You'd have to ask Tony if you wanted a definite answer." Pepper fluffed the skirt of the dress out one more time for good measure, rising up from her knelt position slowly. Her hands rested on Katniss' bare shoulders, beaming. "You look absolutely stunning," she sighed happily behind her in the mirror.

"Clint's gonna be pissed, then," Katniss concluded.

"So pissed."

Pepper gave one of Katniss' shoulders an encouraging squeeze, turning away from her and the sound of her heels clicking in the direction of the elevator. Katniss followed behind her aimlessly, like a lost little puppy dog. Pepper's composure and confidence seemed to ooze right out of her, whereas Katniss felt as though she was completely out of place in her dress. "Let me guess, Tony's probably acting up and if we don't hurry up the Tower just might burn down?" Katniss asked as they stepped into the elevator.

Taking a glance down at her watch, Pepper gave her a knowing sort of glance when her eyes came back up. "Really, you're just now catching on with that one?" she replied.

As the elevator lurched to life and begin to shoot upwards, Katniss watched her reflection in the glass. She looked like a doll, almost unrecognizable. There was a certain danger about her, and she knew that would certainly come to life if Steve did his best to approach her. Katniss could feel her lip curl up in disgust as she thought about Steve being there tonight; Clint, Natasha and Steve all had cleared any schedules for the evening and agreed to tag along. Katniss had wanted nothing more than to stomp her foot down and whine, just like a child might. Tony's business parties were for her, Pepper and Tony. It was something she did without the rest of the team and frankly, she wanted to keep them that way. She didn't need her parents or her ex breathing down her neck at every moment of the evening.

With a faint ding, the elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors rolled back. The long hallway that extended down to the ballroom, where most important affairs took place whenever Tony wanted them to happen there in the vicinity of Avengers tower was littered with people here and there, most of them holding wine glasses and chatting adamantly. They certainly weren't paying any attention to either Pepper or herself. Pepper gave her a reassuring smile as they stepped out of the elevator.

No sooner had that happened did Pepper catch the sight of someone approaching them, her face lighting up like a string of Christmas lights. "Natasha! Clint!" she cried happily, the smile on her face a thousand watts.

Katniss turned her head ever so slightly to see her parents walking in her direction, the both of them dressed to impress. It had been ages, if ever, that Katniss had seen them that dressed up. Clint was wearing a dress shirt, deep purple tie and dress pants, a stern look settled on his face—probably due to the sight of seeing her. The dark berry colored dress that Natasha had worn settled over her figure perfectly, like a second skin. Her red hair was twisted into loose curls, bouncing as she walked in time with Clint, heels clicking. The two of them could have been a pair of models. She moved her eyes back down at her fingernails as an awkward silence fell over her, trying to iron out all of her thoughts and figure out what her game plan would be. Avoid Steve, bat her eyelashes at any bartender she saw, and blend in with the wallpaper; that was how most Tony-related things went. Katniss enjoyed herself once the alcohol got in her system. Mainly because she had a tough time remembering what she did the next day, but she knew it was something that had made the night a little more exciting than before.

"Haven't seen your hair in a braid in awhile," said a calm voice over her shoulder, Katniss jumping nearly ten feet in the air. She whipped around, eyes wide as she took in the sight of who had been so foolish as to startle her like that. Sure enough, it was the person she last wanted to see. Steve had his hands deep in the pockets of his dress pants, hardly any sort of emotion on his face.

Her glare was made of steel as she opened her mouth moments later. "That's because I don't wear it in a braid anymore," she said, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. He started to reply to that, but something in her sent her moving forward, stalking down the hallways with an expression of murder colored on her face. She supposed that if someone wanted to find her, then they'd have to go on a manhunt.

As she pushed through the doors, she found herself stop short in her tracks. Like all things Tony did, it was opulence at its finest. Endless wine glasses keeping their guests' hands occupied, music playing off somewhere in the back of the ballroom, and an abundance of people surrounding her. Even in the near darkness, she could see heads turn over their shoulders, eyes locking in on her like she was some fascinating sight.

She was quick to dart off into the crowd, trying not to think about the hands and other body parts that were accidentally—or purposefully, she was never sure as to which it was—brushing over her shoulders as she tried to find somewhere solitary. "You running away or something?" yelled a voice over the music and the chatter that sucked away the silence. Katniss turned around, only to see Clint staring at her.

"I guess," she shrugged. "I just…need to get away from everyone that I know and relish in the fact that I'm surrounded by strangers." Clint nodded understandingly.

"Well, if one of those strangers happens to look like Fury, you find me or your mom, okay? It's a group discussion with him, and that means the whole group is present."

"You got it." Katniss started to walk off again, before Clint grabbed her wrist and tugged it gently to get her to turn back around. "What?" she asked.

Clint smiled softly. "I hate you being at these parties, you know that. But you look beautiful." Katniss returned the smile as he dropped her wrist, disappearing somewhere into the mass of people.

**. . .**

Katniss' head was buzzing slightly, sitting down the just-emptied glass in front of her. Of course, the night had been exactly what her expectations had been; boring, lifeless and counting down the seconds until she could sneak back down to the thirteenth floor and put it on lockdown. Being the youngest person at the party, she was shoved to the side more often than not and the loneliness got to her rather quickly in social situations like these. She hoped and prayed that things would begin to turn around—maybe Tony would get some more alcohol in his system too, or some nameless guy would approach her and intrigue her with senseless conversation. She was craving it at this point.

Sighing and resting her chin down on top of her balled up fist, she craned her head around to the side. Katniss focused on a specific point in the room, rather empty, to watch absentmindedly. That was until she saw a few men dressed in entirely black, squinting her eyes to get a better look. Her initial assumption was that it was a few of Tony's guys, but after a moment, she couldn't match any names to those faces. All of Tony's guys she knew, and none of them looked like that. She then saw a flash of a grey suit, straightening up at the sight.

Letting her curiosity gain the better of her, she rose up from her seat and began moving through the throngs of people, trying to keep up with the grey suit or any of the men in black surrounding him. Most people were standing around, drunk or halfway there and would hardly budge, causing her to have to shove and push her way through. It was frustrating; all of the people Tony knew or rather, seemed to know him had no courtesy installed inside whatsoever.

"Katniss!" Hearing her name being yelled out over the collective murmur of voices wasn't a rare thing to happen, and she was quick to dismiss it. After that the hint was received on any typical standard. Unlike usual though, this one kept trying. "Katniss, wait up!"

Huffing irritably, she swiveled around on her heel to shoot her glare at none other than Steve Rogers. "For god's sake, what do you want?" she hissed.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"It's none of your business."

"Not likely."

Rolling her eyes, she took a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure that she still had some sort of view of the people she was trying to chase down. They were already on the other end of the room, moving quickly. In the back of her mind, Katniss knew she had to lose Steve and fast. "Look," she finally said, leaning in towards him so he could hear her without having to scream. "I'm trying to follow those guys. I think it's Fury," she explained.

Leaning back, she could see the changed expression on Steve's face. Raising one of her eyebrows as a follow up, she pointed over her shoulder in the opposite way. "Go," he said, head nodding in their direction. "I'll tell the others you got a little sick off of the coconut shrimp."

As much as he did annoy her, Katniss couldn't deny the fact that Steve was fabulous at coming up with cover stories and never wavering in his capabilities of having her back. She was back on the prowl, weaving through people and trying to avoid wearing red wine for the rest of the evening as she did her best not to knock them out of her way. Her footsteps were increasing in their pace, eyes locked in on the furthest man in the small posse that seemed to be standing guard around the grey suit.

He stopped in his tracks, a small rush of success running through her. The closer she got to him, the harder her heart throbbed inside of her chest. She was only a few feet away from the tight knit circle when they all peeled away, revealing who was standing in between. And her original assumption had been horribly wrong. It wasn't Fury at all.

Katniss' pace slowed, freezing only a few steps away as she tried to figure out who it was she'd just fought the crowd to catch up with. The grey suit was a vest, a white dress shirt underneath. The man was rather small, nowhere near as physically intimidating as Fury was. His blonde hair was what really caught her and threw her off of the Fury assumption; she couldn't think of anyone that she knew, aside from Thor and Steve that had hair that color. She obviously had been following the wrong person. This had to be one of Tony's invitees.

Right as she turned to escape and melt back into the crowd, the man spotted her. "Miss Everdeen?" he called out, loud enough to where she could hear the use of her old last name and cringe at it. Internally damning anything she could pin the blame onto, she slowly turned back on her heel and forced the smile onto her face. The man was standing only a few feet away from her, close enough to where she could touch.

"It's…um, it's Romanoff-Barton now," she said softly, the heat rushing into her cheeks.

"My apologies," he smiled. "I haven't kept up with you like I ought to, I'm afraid."

"It's okay," Katniss was quick to insist. "My name change was never really a publicly-made thing."

The man clicked his tongue with the sound of disapproval, the smile still on his face. "What a shame." Katniss forced out a nervous chuckle, wishing that something would happen and she would melt into the floor. Or perhaps, Steve would come and begin bothering her. She actually welcomed the thought of that idea at this point.

It was like something snapped inside of the man, shaking his head as he extended one of his hands. "Where are my manners?" he apologized, flashing quite the sickening grin. "I'm Alexander Pierce."

The blood ran cold inside of Katniss' veins as she lifted her dead-weight hand, numbly shaking his hand. Inside her head, alarm bells were ringing at the loudest volume possible. She would be accepting of any distraction, regardless of what form it came in. She just knew that she had to get away from him. All of Natasha and Clint's words were bouncing around in her head, echoing. _Pierce is stringing them along like puppets. You don't trust people like him. _On the outside, she did her best to keep her composure sewn together. "Nice to meet you," she said, trying to hide the strangled tone. "You work for SHIELD, right?"

"Senior official," he confirmed. "Director Fury received an invitation, but he found himself preoccupied with other matters. I willingly came in his place; he sends his best regards and apologies."

"That's okay," Katniss replied, unsure of what sort of response he was expecting to that. An awkward silence fell over them, her conscious screaming in the back of her head to take advantage of it and make her great getaway. The longer she stayed in Pierce's vicinity, the more her skin crawled. There was something about him that came off wrong, and it wasn't thinking back on her prior knowledge of him either. Looking over her shoulder, she smiled apologetically. "I'd love to stay and chat, but—"

"Actually, I was hoping that I would be able to talk to you," Pierce interrupted smoothly, Katniss' mouth left hanging open with the word flow cut off short. "In private. Do you think…?"

His trailing off was some sort of cue for her to pick back up. Shaking her head, she straightened back her shoulders. "Oh! Um, I really don't know if I should, Tony will be looking for me."

"Nonsense, Tony has hundreds of guests here tonight," Pierce said, dismissing that thought with the wave of his hand, as if that was dispelling it from the very air around them. Another smile. "I'm sure he won't miss us for a few moments, right?"

Katniss swallowed hard, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to wiggle out of this one as easily. "Yeah, right," she admitted in defeat, disheartened. Inside her chest, her heart was threatening to jump out of her ribcage. This was a horrible, horrible idea and she knew it. But there was no getting out of it. She got the feeling that Pierce would make sure of that.

Silently and submissively, Katniss followed Pierce and a few of his men out the back door of the ballroom and down the back hallway. She kept her distance behind Pierce, feeling the heat rising and the walls closing in on her. She knew what this was a sign of. Katniss started naming off American presidents in her head to keep her calm. It was a new calming tactic that she'd learned, since counting her breaths didn't help much anymore. Natasha had helped her with it, drilling them into her head until she could spit them out in her sleep. It did little to keep her mind off the fact that she was following after a man that was shadier than an oak tree and that Clint would kill her for willingly doing so, but it did enough. Pierce walked fast, slipping his way into an unlocked, empty office on the end of the back hall. Two of the three men that had accompanied them rooted their feet into the ground on either side of the doors, watching her as she followed him inside.

Pierce had been a few steps ahead of her and was already looking at the contents on the bookshelf resting against the wall, Katniss' eyes trained on him cautiously. The doors startled her slightly as they came to a loud close behind her. It was deadly quiet in the room, Katniss daring to take a few steps closer to where he was. "You know, Miss Romanoff-Barton, I've heard lots of things about you," Pierce finally said, breaking the silence without ever looking in her direction.

"Really?"

"Captain Rogers seems to be quite fond of you, as do your parents and Director Fury. It's almost as if you're the crowd favorite among the Avengers," he mused. "Perhaps the rest of the world feels the same."

Katniss laughed nervously. "I…I doubt that."

"You do?" Pierce asked, throwing a glance at her over his shoulder. "I wouldn't, but, do tell me, why is that?"

Pierce seemed to enjoy asking questions that she didn't have any sort of answer to around at her. "Well," she started. "I mean, New York was just…that was the first and last people saw of me. I fade into the background pretty easily, especially after everything is said and done. I mean, after New York, everyone still did things worth shoving them into the spotlight, and I sort of blended in with the background. The war was my fifteen minutes, I guess."

"You fought very hard, Miss Romanoff-Barton," Pierce said coolly, his hands moving to brush over the top of the desk and his eyes following. "That day in New York couldn't have been easy, knowing it was up to you to save the world. I hear people talk all the time, in the Triskelion, even out and about. They say that New York was the war against aliens, the war against the great unknown. A war that only the Avengers could have fought for us. Hear me when I say that I am every bit grateful for that." He paused, his steely blue eyes rising to lock onto hers. "But that was no war."

"I don't—" Katniss stammered.

"That was you simply doing what was asked of you. Following Fury's orders, moving around under the command of SHIELD. New York was no war. Tell me, would you like to be in a _real_ war?"

"No." The word flew off of her tongue so fast that she hardly had time to process a legitimate answer, one that didn't sound like she was utterly terrified. Pierce nodded.

"Good. The world is already a scary enough place." He then gestured for her to sit down in the lone chair in front of the desk. She did so, hands sweating profusely as she ran her palms along the sides of the arms on the chair. "Agreed?" he asked, after his pause.

"Agreed."

"Which is why I think you will be more than happy to assist me," Pierce said. "With the events of New York being broadcast all over the world, not only do people know that there is danger, but that there is more danger in this world than they could have expected. The veil was torn away. Are you familiar with the reasons SHIELD was founded, Miss Romanoff-Barton?"

"To...keep people safe?" Katniss stammered.

"To keep people safe. To save people. And the best way to do that is to keep them in the dark. The less people know, the better off they are. The safer they are. And that is what I want you to do, to keep people safe."

Katniss could feel her mouth drying out, tongue failing to work. "I…I can't help them," she mumbled.

"Yes you can," Pierce corrected her. "And you will. I want for you to do everything in your power to make sure that the public sees no reason to worry. Put all of their faith in SHIELD, because SHIELD will handle all of the problems. Resume living their day-to-day lives, while we rebuild that torn veil."

Shaking her head, the frustration began to rise up in the back of her throat. "I don't think you understand. I'm not a SHIELD agent, I don't work under them. I'm an Avenger and an Avenger only; I'm only allowed to be used at SHIELD's disposal when it requires the talents of the entire team," she quoted from memory, thinking back on how Tony had explained it to her. "I'm a consultant at any other time, and I can't be touched." The growing edge of rebellion in her voice was growing stronger.

Pierce's calm façade was beginning to crack as his eyes narrowed at her. "Your parents can, though. As can Captain Rogers. Surely you wouldn't want for them to be shipped out on a mission with an indefinite time on it, would you? Minimal to no contact? High-danger risk?" Katniss could taste the bile in her mouth as he continued on. "Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff _are_ at my disposal. And judging by the footage from New York that I've seen, you aren't one to easily let those that you love walk out on the line when you get a say."

Blinking rapidly, Katniss stared at the edges of the desk and studying the detailing on it, trying to distract herself from the words that Pierce was feeding her. "Just tell me what you want me to do," she muttered.

"I want for you to make sure that people understand there is nothing going on. There is no reason to panic, to dwell on the past. New York was a freak incident, something out of our control. But we have it under control. And I trust you'll do anything in your power for them to believe you, or else."

"Or else what?" Katniss whispered, too horrified to think of what his answer could be.

Instead of responding, Pierce just smiled. "Despite what you may think, I believe you'll be the crowd's favorite after all," he replied. He then nodded in her direction, walking around the side of the desk. She blinked again, a tear slipping down her face as he gave one of her shoulders a squeeze. Instinctively, her head lowered even more. She kept a close watch on his feet as well as his other security guard's, watching as the doors opened just to close once again. Their heavy footsteps grew farther and farther away in distance, a shaky sigh of relief escaping her.

Pierce was messing with her, trying to get inside of her head. Katniss could understand why Natasha and Clint didn't trust him as far as they could have thrown him; he was like a serpent and there was no way to know for sure what he truly had up his sleeve. She started rattling off presidents in her mind to calm herself down, shaky and choppy breaths falling out of her mouth as she gripped the arms on the chair tightly. About the time she reached JFK, the door busted wide open.

"Oh my god, Katniss, there you are!" Pepper sighed in relief, hand resting over her chest as her companions flooded in the room. "We've been looking everywhere for you; Tony refuses to get up and make a speech until he knows you're in the room."

Natasha had her hands on her hips, standing in the corner—chances are, it had been her to kick the door in, judging by the way she was standing. "Why are you in here in the first place?" she asked, brushing a few of her scarlet curls behind her ear.

Katniss was silent, her mouth open but no words coming out. Clint's eyes narrowed. "Katniss," he said dangerously. "Who was in here with you?"

It took her a moment to realize he was waiting on an answer. "Oh!" she exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat and swiping underneath her eyes to wipe away any of the wetness. "No one, it was just me. I thought I had seen Fury and I ended up in here. Had a little bit too much to drink, needed to rest for a minute. Guess the time slipped past me." Her eyes landed on Steve, who was standing by the door and looking rather concerned. "Steve knew, right, Steve?"

Every eye was on him in a second, Katniss' pleading for him to go along with it. "Oh, um, yeah," Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well was it Fury?" Natasha asked. Katniss shook her head in disagreement.

Pepper looked back and forth between them. "Alright, well, if that's all, Tony's probably being pushed towards the microphone at the moment, and we had better get back in there before he gets physical. He's definitely got alcohol in his system."

The walk back down the hallway to the ballroom wasn't as scary as it had been, now that she was with people she knew. It didn't seem as dark, either. Something about Pierce brought that on. Katniss wondered if Pierce was back in the ballroom or if he had disappeared. The thought of bumping into him again didn't appeal to her; in fact, it terrified her. "Your hands are shaking," Natasha commented dryly, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"What?" Katniss lifted one of her hands, noticing that sure enough, it was trembling. "Oh," she laughed falsely. "Just a little chilly, that's all."

She could tell that her mother didn't buy that whatsoever, but it wasn't like there was any time to question it. The minute they'd stepped back into the ballroom, Tony had began speaking animatedly, Pepper darting up to the front to make sure he was on track. Katniss and the other three moved a little closer towards the front to where he was, trying to get a better look at the crowd as a whole. Apparently, the hunt for Fury was still on. Katniss could hear Natasha and Clint's exchanged whispers as they tried to locate him, internally chiding them for even trying. _He's not even here. It's Pierce that came._

Looking over her shoulder for only a moment, her blood ran cold as she caught sight of Pierce in the throngs of people listening to Tony drone on and on about sales and business accomplishments. He was listening closely to Tony, his eyes drifting over and picking up on her stares. Pierce smiled at her briefly before going back to giving Tony his full attention.

Katniss turned back around, swallowing hard. It was going to take a lot more than naming presidents backwards to calm her down this time.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: God, could this have been any longer? This chapter minus author's notes was almost 5,000 words. That's insanity. But there was a lot going on, so I figured we should probably talk about it. Holy. Shit. It's Alexander Pierce. I did my best to sort of combine the scenes that Steve has with Pierce in CAWS and Katniss with President Snow in Catching Fire. And frankly, it scared even me. Pierce's plan to use Katniss as a public distraction off of SHIELD's rebuild of their security, what do you think? Why is he using her? And how do you feel about her reaction to it all? Do you think she should have lied about the whole ordeal to Natasha and Clint? Also, a little bit of Steveniss tolerating each other…it's progress my friends. I'm really really interested in hearing what you have to say about how Katniss is pretty much dealing with everything: her drinking, the more frequent anxiety, her irritability, how she's adjusting to living in a spotlight with people ravaging over her like she's an object, all of the changes in her quirks and stuff…what do you think? Do you think New York had this effect on her or something else? Be sure to drop your fabulous review in the box below and let me know how you felt and what you're excited for next. If you don't review, Alexander Pierce is going to find you and lead you down a dark, scary hallway. Just saying.**


	4. Everything's Not Enough

**A/N: Well hey guys! Long time no update; do you guys even remember this story, haha? I'm so sorry about that, I really love this story but lately my whole schedule has been off kilter and it's been near impossible to keep up with everything going on. Real life is a lot more of a hassle than I would like to admit, because if I have any downtime lately all I want to do is lay in bed immobile because I'm too tired to move. But I'm feeling good and inspired, so that means another chapter of this baby for you all! There's some new stuff coming up in this story as well from me in general so I hope you all are ready :) Also, the Age of Ultron trailer leaked on Wednesday and I died, so this is my ghost sending you on your way. Enjoy.**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Four: Everything's Not Enough<span>

"Katniss. Katniss, can you hear me?" A set of hands found her side, shaking her gently. "Are you awake yet?" No response.

For Katniss, she was still half-asleep and couldn't deter the voice in reality from her dreams. Things were still cozy and comfortable, nestled in her bed, and just like that, they weren't. Shooting straight up in bed the minute she felt the ice, she jerked backwards and scrambled to untangle herself from her now freezing, sopping wet sheets. Pushing the now wet and matted hair out of her eyes, she glared at the source. "What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" she hissed, grinding her teeth together.

A nonchalant Natasha stood above her, holding a now-empty bucket in her hands. "Good morning," she said, with no signs of her usual tell-tale half smirk on her face. She was as serious as a dead body.

Katniss stared at her, bewildered. "Yeah, it was," she said slowly, before gesturing to the knotted sheets still plastered to her shins. "That was before you decided you'd have a little fun waking me up!"

Natasha gave a one-shouldered shrug. "It's already nine-thirty."

"That's not a bad thing, you know."

"At night." Katniss clammed up quickly, not realizing that she'd slept that late. Last night had gone from bad to worse after her confrontation with Alexander Pierce. After Tony's speech—which, it had been incredibly evident that he had been drunk—she found herself glued to the bar. Drink after drink after drink, she was willing to do anything to take her mind off of Pierce's threats and cautious eye on her ever since they'd walked out. She could still feel her skin crawling just at the thought of his snake-like smile. It had turned her stomach inside out, and once she made it back to her floor, she was a drunk, sick mess. She'd fallen straight into bed, where she'd been tormented by nightmares every time she tried to effectively give into the effects of the alcohol. Usually she passed out straightaway, but the stuff in her systems hyped up her dreams and made them twenty times worse. They all involved Pierce either killing her, killing her family, or making her kill someone else, and they all involved her jolting awake and throwing up over the extreme nausea. She'd slept on the bathroom carpet until god only knew what time before she finally made her way to her bed and actually passed out. The time had meant nothing to her.

"Besides," Natasha continued. "You were unresponsive, and I had to resort to another alternative. JARVIS playing Highway to the Danger Zone didn't seem to work."

"Unresponsive?" Katniss spat, reaching down and peeling the drenched sheets off of her legs and rolling out of bed. "I was asleep. Unlike you and Dad, I sleep reasonably well. And I'm pretty sure that there were about a thousand other alternative options, options that didn't involve you getting water from the middle of the Arctic Sea and dumping it on my head." Bumping into her mother purposefully on her way past, she began to scrunch up handfuls of her hair, wringing the water out of them. The natural curls were already starting to come out, and not the beautiful sort that she'd been adorned with last night. "Should have just played Highway to the Danger Zone on a loop, it would have worked. Eventually."

"You reek of liquor," Natasha commented dryly, her watchful eye following her daughter across the room. Katniss' cheeks turned pink, but she kept on wringing out her hair in hopes that her mother would take the attention off of the obvious. Folding her arms, Natasha took a tentative step forward. "Tell me, how _did _you get around the bartender with no ID?"

"Bartender doesn't check for IDs," Katniss noted, focusing on a random spot in the mirror she was staring into, a spot that wasn't Natasha's reflection. "I've been getting around it since I was eighteen. Figured if I'm considered legal and they trust me enough to do most things conscientiously, drinking really should be one of those." She was silent, waiting for Natasha to chew her out in her native Russian.

"In most circumstances, this would be the part where I tell you underage drinking is wrong and that you're killing off brain cells or ruining development, some kind of shit," she started, sitting down on the far end of Katniss' bed where it was most likely still dry. "But, you've never been a normal circumstance to begin with, and at your age, you deserve more than just a little something from time to time."

"So you're not going to rat me out?"

"To who?"

The room was silent as Katniss stared at her wrists that were still working at her hair. "What brought you down here?" Katniss finally asked. "I figured you would have gotten the memo that interrupting me when I sleep is a horrible idea."

"Oh, Tony warned me. I took the liberty upon dragging you out of bed myself; Clint and Pepper would have babied you out of bed, and Rogers could coax you with a golden bow and arrow and you wouldn't budge." Katniss made a face, to which Natasha finally smirked at. "As for what this is about, I honestly don't have a clue. All I know is that Tony's more wired than usual and Clint looked like he'd seen a ghost."

"So great news, I take it," Katniss muttered grimly as she pulled her go-to cardigan around her shoulders. Running her fingers back through the damp and mangled mess of hair that was sprawled over the top of her head and sweeping it up into a messy ponytail, she led the way towards the elevator. "God, I'm really sick of all these damn team meetings."

"They don't ever slow down in numbers," Natasha pointed out as the elevator doors drew back, the two of them stepping inside.

Her finger jamming into the penthouse button, Katniss let out a small sigh. "Good to know." The elevator didn't waste any time, shooting upwards towards the top of the building. Normally, the speed and the ascent didn't bother her too much, but with all the alcohol in her system, the lurch was sickening. Katniss had a tight grip on the railing behind her, catching Natasha's observant glance over before closing her eyes. She didn't understand why the penthouse seemed like it was so far away; usually the ride was a lot shorter. Then again, every time she'd set foot in that elevator since her parent's arrival, the rides had felt longer and longer, usually because they was always something awkward going on. The faint ding overhead and the usually-regular-but-overly-exaggerated-stop signaled the end of the ride, and Katniss almost sprinted out of the doors once the gap between them was wide enough for her to slip through.

There was a low whistle from the opposite side of the room. "Damn, baby bird," said Tony, a chuckle following. Her eyes locked in on him; he was sprawled out on his couch, an empty plastic water bottle in his hand. Judging by the smirk on his face, there probably wasn't water in that bottle, but she didn't make that comment. Instead, she glared at him as he continued. "Sleep all day, party all night; you're turning into quite the typical kid your age. "

"Typical kid her age?" Natasha had gotten out before Katniss could even open her own mouth in retaliation. "She fought off an alien invasion when she was seventeen, I don't think she's typical in any sense of the word." Katniss smiled supportively in her mother's direction.

"We went through all sorts of different ways to wake you up after twelve-thirty; made it a game. '_Whose outrageous idea will wake up Sleeping Beauty?_'" Tony ignored Natasha completely, making air quotes with his hands as he stared up at the ceiling for some kind of dramatic effect.

"Well on the other hand, she seems to take her alcoholic habits after yours, which mirror a college-aged kid's, so I can see where you'd get that assumption," Natasha retorted coolly, folding her arms over her chest.

Tony sat up, almost falling off of the couch in his attempt. "Look," he said, pointing an accusing finger at Natasha. "You let the kid come live with me, I never promised a clean track record."

"Obviously."

"Stark, we got the feed from the security cameras, and you're not going to believe—" Clint's voice said from somewhere behind Katniss, even though she couldn't pinpoint his location anywhere. It took a moment before she saw him standing in the doorway of Tony's penthouse lab. The darkness coming from the window along the wall behind him had disguised him from her view when she'd first walked in, as well as Bruce, who just so happened to be standing next to him.

Katniss swallowed hard, that spinning feeling coming back to her that she often got whenever she woke up the morning after. Leave it to Tony to drag her into the most awkward situation of her life. _The only thing that could make this whole situation even worse would be if Steve decided to saunter on upstairs and join the party._ "Believe what?" said someone from behind Katniss, and she internally groaned as she watched Steve walk around her, a drink in either hand. _Spoke too soon._

She felt Natasha's hand tugging on her wrist gently; gesturing for her to sit down next to her on the couch opposite the one Tony had lounged back out across. Katniss didn't budge. "What do we not believe?" Natasha asked, looking over the back of the couch at Clint and the others.

"Am I going to have to get up and come look at this, Legolas?" Tony said, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, closing his eyes.

"'Fraid so, Tin-Man," Clint replied.

Katniss didn't need to hear any more, halfway to the lab before Natasha or Tony had the time to pull themselves out of their seats. Wrapping her cardigan around her tighter, she slid past Clint and Bruce through the doorway. It was always a good fifteen or twenty degrees colder inside Tony's labs, because the cold apparently kept him awake and alive. His penthouse lab was always kept pristine and sparkling-clean, mostly because he tried to refrain from using it. It was for show, or, in cases like this, a lab that he'd willingly let the Avengers stroll into and not have an anxiety attack that Thor would accidentally crush anything important.

Pulling herself up onto a lab table, she swung her legs absentmindedly as she stared around the room. Several of the monitors had been turned on, clearly Clint and Bruce's work. "So what's this fabulous discovery you two have made?" Tony asked dramatically, strolling inside of the lab with Natasha right behind him.

"Remember how we invited Fury to the party last night?" Clint asked, slipping around one of the lab tables to get past Tony and Natasha's blocking of the small walkway. Tony nodded. "Well, we had a visit from SHIELD last night, but not in the form of our eye-patched pal."

"So who did SHIELD send, then?" Natasha asked.

Katniss craned her neck, a glimpse of the security camera feed that Bruce was trying to conceal with his frame in front of her even though she knew the answer all too well. "Alexander Pierce," she said monotonously, every eye in the room snapping onto her.

"Pierce came?" Natasha repeated dumbfounded, looking to Clint for some sort of response. He only shrugged.

Katniss was staring at her kneecaps, trying not to think about Alexander Pierce. Thinking about him tied her stomach in knots, and she already felt like she was walking on sea-legs. It also didn't help that Steve was burning holes into her from across the lab, staring at her as if she might disappear at any given moment. Katniss knew that Steve wasn't stupid; Steve had more pieces of how her night had actually gone than anyone else in that room and he was probably putting them together in his mind with ease. That was bad news for her. The assumption was that Pierce wished for their conversation in that office to stay between them and if Steve knew, she couldn't imagine the things Pierce would do to him. Keeping people safe started with her team, no matter how badly they irritated her.

"Why would Pierce have shown up instead of Fury?" Tony asked, moving Bruce out of the way to take a look at the monitor himself. "Fury's always looking for a reason to weasel his way into my home and give me hell for every little thing I've done since he last saw me."

"My guess is that Pierce wants to weasel his way into your home and find out how to bring it down from the inside," Clint said. "Because I got news earlier that Natasha, Steve and I are all being pulled out at the end of the week to go to California for an op."

The blood in Katniss' veins ran cold. This was not a part of the plan; this was not supposed to be happing. She didn't understand how this had already happened so soon; Pierce had promised her to keep them out of harm's way unless they she didn't comply. Had Pierce been watching her at that party and changed his mind, decided to go ahead and pull her parents into the field where she couldn't keep them safe, to show her that this wasn't a game? Was this merely coincidence? No, there was no way. Nothing was a coincidence anymore, Katniss didn't believe in coincidence. Everything meant something. He was everywhere, no matter what she liked to think. And this was Pierce's way of demonstrating what he'd do to Katniss if she so much as put one toe out of line.

Hopping off the table, she found her legs moving underneath her. Her breathing was already getting more rapid, trying to push past her teammates and get out of the lab. "Katniss!" she could hear Tony and Steve call for her as she slipped out of the room, darting for the elevator. Their voices sounded more like hums, far off in the distance. "Katniss, wait! Come back!"

She couldn't force herself back to that lab; her fight or flight mode had kicked in and it had carried her all the way to the elevator. She could see the confused and concerned faces of her parents and teammates as the elevator doors slid to a close. Punching a random button blindly, the tears clouded her vision and she crumpled onto the floor. The sobs kept catching and hitching inside of her throat, threatening to spill over but never seemed to get out. Tears freely flowed down her face and she curled up into the tightest ball she could, in hopes that it would bring about a sense of security. It did no good. "JARVIS," she said in a weak voice. "Corrupt any footage you have on the elevator cameras since I stepped in."

"Yes, Miss Romanoff-Barton."

**. . .**

Arms sore and covered in sweat, Katniss pulled another bow from her quiver and pointed it at the still target she'd been firing at for over half an hour, dozens of arrows firmly embedded in various spots she'd focused on. She couldn't stay cooped up inside her room, thinking about what Pierce had done. It would have driven her mad. The only plausible option that had presented itself was to go downstairs to the gym and work all the pain off. Her head was throbbing, partially from the lack of food in her system, partially the remainder of her hangover, and partially the fact that whenever she stressed, the first sign it was going too far was the headache.

"What are you doing, kiddo?" said a voice from behind her, right as she let the arrow fly. It startled her, causing the arrow to miss its intended target and wobble, hitting the ground before it made it to the target. Spinning around, she was treated to the sight of her father, a disapproving look on his face.

"Shooting, why?" she asked, pointing her bow in the direction of the target. When she swung it out, Clint snatched it out of her hands and threw it behind him. Katniss' eyes widened, confounded. "Why did you just do that?

"I'm not talking about the bow, Katniss. I mean, what are you doing? You're not a drunk. You're not skittish; you're certainly one who can take any type of news with a grain of salt, so why are you acting the complete opposite of yourself? Ever since we got here, you haven't been the same," Clint probed.

"I…I—"

"Does this have to do with Pierce? If Natasha and I scared you with the whole prospect of him earlier, then I didn't mean to. We shouldn't be bringing this stuff up around you, you were the one who opted out in the first place and we shouldn't—"

"It's not that," Katniss finally spat out. "It's just…this op in California. I don't feel comfortable about it." She knew she had already said too much. She couldn't dare bring up her conversation with Pierce, even if it was just Clint. This was a secret, a secret that if she dared attempted to share with someone else; it would hurt a lot more than just her. She could feel her heart pounding harder in her chest, scared that he could see right through her.

Clint shrugged, as if there was no question about it. "Come with us, it's a basic op as far as I know and there's nothing truly dangerous about it. Stark's already told us that he intends on tagging along with us in order to help get a deeper dig on Insight, and I'll bet he could use some help. Or not, but you know what I mean. Come with us and then you won't have to be uncomfortable with it."

"Okay," Katniss said slowly, toying around with the idea on her tongue. "But you have to make me a promise."

"Shoot."

Katniss took a deep breath. "I want for you to train me." Clint gaped at her for a moment, staring at her and trying to figure out where she was coming from just by a look.

"I…you what?" he stammered back.

"I want for you and Natasha to train me. You know, hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, all of that. Starting as soon as we can, I want you guys to prepare me. I'm not always going to have a quiver of arrows on me and I want to be able to defend myself," she said, her shaky voice finding a little more strength as she kept going.

"Katniss, you don't need us to train you, you're more than capable of defending yourself without your arrows," Clint insisted, dispersing her fear with a slight wave of his hand. "You held your own against me when I was possessed, you don't need any training."

"That's different, things are different now. Everything has changed over the past two years and I need to know how to keep myself alive as long as possible. Will you do it, yes or no?"

Clint was silent for a moment, Katniss boring holes into his head as he rubbed his jaw. Finally, he let out a long sigh. "Fine, fine," he complied. "I'll train you. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to get Natasha on board, so if I can't, you have to promise me that this will stay a secret between us." He raised an eyebrow, and Katniss nodded. It was quiet for a moment before Clint started talking again.

"Bruce wanted to know if you were okay, after you ran out of the lab earlier." Katniss remained silent. Taking into account that she wasn't planning on acknowledging that, he kept going. "He has this theory; it's kind of funny, really, but he has this theory that you and Tony are both dealing with the same issues and it's why you make perfect housemates for the other; all of the changes in your lives, the drinking, the skittish behaviors and the antisocial tendencies. He thinks that the two of you are just starting to deal with New York."

"And you still aren't?" Katniss snapped. "He's a scientist, not a doctor. I don't need a diagnosis on why Tony and I connect. He's my godfather. Connection established."

She watched as Clint took a few steps backwards, sitting down on the bench. "You have a really bad habit about making it painfully obvious as to who you're trying to avoid. It's even more obvious when you were romantically involved with them; you won't even touch Rogers with a ten-foot pole, so it's pretty clear that something went down between you and Bruce." When he saw the puzzled look on her face, he smirked. "You know, Tasha and I might have been in Manila for seven months, but it's not like we were under rocks."

Katniss sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Look, it's not like I hate Bruce. I don't. He and I are still good friends...it's just, things get awkward with us quickly. Any time it ever goes slightly past something that could be perceived as not brother-sister, we clam up and run off. It was two dates and a half of one that ended with us both drunk off our asses and me crying to him about Steve. It got awkward after that and we never went back." Thinking back to her experience with Bruce, it left a bitter taste in her mouth. It had ended faster than it began; stupid Rogers had of course, ruined all of it with the mere impact he had left on her life. The fact that it had to be with Bruce made it worse. She felt as though she'd lost her best friend once she couldn't look him in the eye any more. Shaking herself out of her own thought path, she tried to draw the conversation in a different direction. "Do you think he's right? You know, about the whole issues thing?"

"As your father, I'm inclined to agree with you, but this time I agree with him," Clint interrupted her from her thoughts. "I think that something is up with you and Tony. The two of you need a break from this...routine you two are in; parties, drinking, the rigorous activity for long periods of time. I don't think I'd necessarily say you're just dealing with New York, but I think something has changed with you. Ever since we got here, especially since last night, you've been acting funny. Like you're scared something else crazy is going to come in and turn your world on its head."

"So this is an intervention?" Katniss asked, raising an eyebrow.

Clint shook his head. "Not at all, just observation." Pulling himself off of the bench, he started for the door. "Get some sleep, you've got a good bit of packing and catch-up to play tomorrow." She gave him a small salute on his way out of the gym, watching his figure recede.

True to her nature, she hardly slept.

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><p><strong>AN: Well I know that was a bit filler-y, but next chapter is going to be one of my all-time favorites. I had to set up the scene for California, which, sometimes requires filler chapters. Now you know why Katniss and Bruce have been so awkward around each other, it's because they had a little fling going on! Oh relationship drama. I love it. What do you think about that situation? And Clint and possibly Natasha training Katniss, why do you think that Katniss wants for them to train her? Plus, I love how Clint's already catching on that something's up with his daughter, but he's not about to let her know that he's truly concerned about her. Like father like 's not forget the fact that they're being called out to California, do you think that was Pierce's doing or not? Again, I'm sorry for leaving you hanging for so so long and the fact that this chapter was slightly boring in comparison to the past few, but I promise that I will make it up to you. Be sure to leave reviews and let me know what you thought + what you're excited for, or I'll withhold all those new AOU bits they're releasing in place of the trailer on Tuesday night. We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we? **


	5. California Dreaming

**A/N: I was at Krispy Kreme last night, and seeing as how last night was Halloween, there were a bunch of people who were dressed up that came in. Let's just say I saw about four Captain Americas, a little Black Widow, and the most authentic Winter Soldier costume ever, and it really kicked me into the writing mood. So, that being said, here I am. Anyways, thank you all for your reviews and the increase of follows and favorites, that's so nice and I'm glad that you're enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! This next chapter will probably be kind of long because I don't want to give you another filler, but hopefully you'll see how I do intend on weaving this story. Enjoy ;)**

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><p><span>Chapter Five: California Dreaming<span>

**_ROMANOFF-BARTON, KATNISS DELIA  
>SHIELD OPERATIVE #7213<br>ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION_**

**_MESSAGE: You are to report with Agent(s) Barton and Romanoff and Captain Rogers to California on their mission to neutralize the threat behind several believed terrorist attacks. As they carry out their work, you are to appear in any and all public appearances that involve Mr. Tony Stark and these attacks. Do not inform any of your team of your personal assignment or appropriate action will be taken in terms of Barton and Romanoff's employment. I trust you will do what you see necessary in order to fulfill your duties. Mission briefing will be attached below. Delete as soon as finished.  
>- Alexander Pierce, SHIELD Senior Official<em>**

**. . .**

"God, I forgot how miserable California is," Natasha drawled, pushing her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose. Tony rolled his eyes, stepping up beside her and clapping one of his hands on her shoulders, to which she visibly tried to shroud away from.

"You could use the sunshine, Little Red," Tony disputed. "Maybe the sun will warm your ice heart a little."

"Maybe it'll thaw out your brain and it'll start working." Katniss couldn't help but to snicker at the banter between her mother and godfather. If there was any dynamic that she loved to just watch ideas and words ping-pong off of each other, it was definitely Natasha and Tony's. The two of them could keep up with each other with hardly any trouble at all, and the angle they always chose to play was the one that would make the other run back in defeat, tails between their legs.

Dismissing Natasha's remark and desires to get him away from her, he extended his arm around Natasha's shoulders and let out a content sigh. "I think this is the perfect opportunity for a little Avenger-styled family vacation," he pointed out.

"We're here on a mission," Clint interrupted dryly, stepping up behind Tony and Natasha and peeling Tony's arm off of her. "You wanted to tag along to get a deeper look into Insight, and we agreed. We didn't agree on trips to Disneyland every weekend."

Straightening up and adjusting the sunglasses over his own eyes, Tony puffed out his chest. "Hey, I didn't just come for you guys. Pepper wanted me out of the Tower, and frankly, out of New York. Happy wanted a new change of scenery too, you know," he muttered.

The entire plane ride across the country had been a borderline anxiety attack wrapped up in a neat little bow for Katniss, and it wasn't the height getting to her. From Pierce's first order of instruction—that terrified her mainly due to the fact that he'd managed to get in touch with her without giving him an ounce of information, because really, that was just all the more proof he was everywhere—to flipping through the debrief about the supposedly related bombings that Natasha and Clint were being sent in to investigate, her hands had yet to stop shaking. Mission briefings were never as bad as debriefs, but even she knew that a twenty-something page briefing wasn't much of a good sign. Steve had been shooting her looks the whole ride, to which she'd had to return with the nastiest glare she could conjure up.

She was able to pull off a rigorous session in the gym the night before as her excuse, because it was partially true. She and Clint had been down in the gym, late at night when they knew Natasha was either preoccupied or asleep to get in training time. It had turned out that Natasha didn't want to train her for undisclosed reasons; she'd simply jabbed her steak knife into Tony's dinner table and stalked off when the question had been proposed at dinner and had said no more on the subject. So, it came to the agreement that Katniss and Clint would do all of their training together whenever Natasha had her head turned or when she wasn't around, the both of them not saying another word about it in front of her as long as they valued their lives to some degree.

Clint trained like it was boot camp. He wasn't going easy on her just because she was his daughter; in fact, she was pretty sure that was what pushed him to make him drive her harder. Because she didn't want any extra help with the bow, it was all hand-to-hand combat that he had been working on with her. Hours and hours of sparring down in the gym, and each time, Clint would take her down with ease. "Come on, Kat," he'd said one night, wiping the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. "You took me out with ease when I was possessed by a _god,_ you can't even pin me down when I'm going easy on you?"

"That's you going easy?" Clint shot her a look, and she'd rolled her eyes. "That fight was over two years ago, before I went through physical therapy after a stab wound to the back. Adrenaline high, fabulous shape; you were easy to beat then." Holding out her hands far apart from each other, palms up, she made gestures to each one as she raised an eyebrow as if to mock him. "That was then, this is now."

"You trained fine after New York," he'd pointed out.

"_Archery_ training," she corrected. "Which, need I refresh your memory, does not involve anyone being slammed to the ground and tapping out after three seconds in a dreadfully uncomfortable chokehold."

"Are your legs bothering you? Natasha said you had a moment when the two of you sparred the other day," was his explanation when she gave him a puzzled look. "Is everything okay?" Leave it to Natasha to bring up moments that she would have rather buried in the dirt. It wasn't like it was a lie though; her legs had been locking up on occasion, hurting her more than usual whenever she overworked herself, and part of her mind had done its best to convince her it was all because the weather was turning off cooler. Whenever the temperature dropped, she felt like the Tin-Man in need of oiling. She'd pasted a fake smile on her face, shook her head and fixed her ponytail as Clint got back into position for their next round.

Katniss had hardly gotten any sleep either; when she wasn't training, she was pacing her room and dwelling on everything that Pierce had threatened her with. It was taunting her, the more she tried to shut herself up about it was usually when it tended to linger inside her mind. It didn't help that she was forced to keep this a secret and that so much was riding on it. She couldn't help but to feel like Pierce was everywhere and that she was never truly alone, or safe for that matter.

"And speaking of my man, Happy!" Tony exclaimed, startling Katniss and shaking her out of her thoughts about Pierce's looming presence everywhere she went. The car waiting off to the side must have been theirs, seeing as how Tony strolled up with both arms held over his head. Taking the initiative to be the next one to follow him, Katniss plastered her '_everything-is-fine-and-nothing's-out-of-the-ordinary'_ smile onto her lips. She opened up the side door of the car, interrupting the avid chatter between Tony and his driver.

"Hey, Happy," she said, sounding a lot calmer and content than she'd expected to.

Happy looked up at her through the rearview mirror, smiling. "Hey kiddo, good to see ya!" It had been quite some time since she'd really seen Happy; there had hardly been anywhere she felt the need to go in quite some time, and therefore all of Happy's services had been rendered obsolete to her. Even though he lived in the Tower with her, she hardly saw reason to leave her own floor unless she was going to the gym, and her path never did seem to cross with his. It was refreshing, seeing him after what felt like an eternity. Something about seeing Happy gave her a sense of familiarity in her life amidst all the craziness.

"Good to see you too," she replied, sliding across the row of seats to the far end. Steve was the next to clamber into the car, Natasha and Clint right behind him. There was an empty space in between her and Steve, Natasha and Clint choosing to crawl into the very back row, yet that empty space wasn't enough to separate them. She turned to look out the window as Happy's foot found the gas, the car squealing to life and barreling off down the street.

California wasn't New York City, which Katniss was grateful for. Ghosts followed her around in New York; it was like every time she turned a corner, there was something else that popped out from the past and she couldn't get it to stop following her. Grand Central Terminal and the road passing by it were avoided at all costs, because every time she saw it, the Chitauri's screeches would echo out in her head. Passing by little cafes made her think of the times when she wasn't constantly at Steve's throat, and it left a bitter taste and the need to leave. Everywhere she went was staring some memory in the face, and it was partially reason as to why she never found a need to leave the Tower.

She felt like the ultimate tourist, nose pressed against the car window as she stared out at the city passing by. The buildings were just as big and flashy as they were in New York, but there was something different about them. There was no baggage attached to the street signs and the locations, it was all a new slate. Katniss felt the smile creeping over her face, not bothering to fight it back. It was a nice feeling, knowing that there was a certain freedom that came with being in a town without the past following her around.

Katniss had never been to Tony's property in California, but from what he'd said about it, it sounded even more inviting than Avengers Tower. It overlooked the ocean, didn't have any neighbors, and was an actual house. The last memories that Katniss had of a real house was all the way back in Twelve, and even then, it had taken on more of the description of a cabin. Tony's voice shook her out of her thoughts, clapping loudly and causing her to jump slightly. "Welcome to casa de Stark," he announced loudly.

Turning around in his seat, he pushed his sunglasses down, eyes twinkling. "You remember this place, right, Romanoff?"

Natasha gave him a look. "How could I ever forget? It was the beginning of the never-ending job of saving your sorry ass from trouble time and time again," she deadpanned, before shooting him an overly cheerful grin.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Just because you don't enjoy my house doesn't mean baby bird won't." His eyes then moved to Katniss, smiling. "Don't listen to your mom; time has not helped her attitude improvement whatsoever. You're going to love California."

The car began to slow, winding down the driveway that led up to the house. It was quite the house; nothing short of Tony's wishes of extravagance and style. Katniss was still staring out the window, in just as much awe as she had been when they were driving through downtown. "You have tennis courts?" she found herself asking as they passed by, circling around the entrance.

"It's not like he actually plays tennis, Katniss," Natasha interrupted.

Clint laughed. "Please, when has Stark ever showed any signs of athletic ability?"

Sitting up to shoot them a glare through the rearview mirror, Tony pouted. "You two are perfect for each other you know; evil, spiteful, hurtful—"

"Is that all, Stark?"

"Actually, no, I was just getting started," Tony fired back as the car rolled to a stop. Quick to climb out, Katniss slammed her car door shut the minute her feet hit the pavement, eyes glued to the mansion in front of her. The smell of saltwater hit her first thing, a breeze blowing her hair back. Happy stepped out of the car, walking past her to help get their bags.

Clapping a hand on her shoulder, he smiled. "Welcome home, Katniss."

**. . .**

"Katniss. Katniss. Katniss, wake _up_." Someone was violently shaking her side, whispering frantically in her ear. Rolling over, Katniss rubbed at her eyes before opening them, squinting in order to adjust to the darkness and the glare of the alarm clock on the night table.

"Wha…what's wrong?" she mumbled, still half-asleep as she sat up, sliding against the pillows.

Natasha was standing over her, dressed head to toe in her tactical gear. "Come on," she said, her voice serious. "You need to get up and get dressed; the Quinjet's going to be here any minute to pick us up."

"Quinjet?" Katniss asked, bleary eyes turning to look over at the alarm clock. "It's almost one in the morning, why is a Quinjet coming for us?"

"I'll explain once you're up and moving, now get dressed," Natasha growled, throwing back the covers. Katniss kicked one leg over the side of the bed, the other one following a few seconds later as she hopped down off of the bed. She felt a pair of hands shove her in the direction of the closet, feet moving faster underneath her unwillingly.

Katniss was confused as her mother shoved something in her hands before pushing her inside the walk-in closet and closing the door roughly. Her hands felt around on the wall for a light switch, finding it blindly and switching it on. The light was painfully bright, and as she looked down, she realized that she was staring at a carbon-copy of Natasha's tactical uniform. Puzzled as to why she would need this—and more importantly, why she was even awake—she stripped out of her pajamas and slipped into the uniform, zipping it up tiredly. Slouched over, she rummaged around for her boots, sliding them on slowly and lazily. She turned to face the full-length mirror, using the spare hair tie that she kept on her wrist to tie her hair up into a ponytail. Pulling it tighter on her head, she gave one quick look at herself. She looked exactly how she felt—exhausted.

No sooner had she stepped out of the closet, Natasha grabbed her wrist and jerked her off down the hall. "What the hell?" Katniss hissed.

"We have to go, come on," Natasha muttered underneath her breath. "And don't say a word until we're outside."

They moved throughout the house quickly, Natasha dragging Katniss behind her. At night, everything seemed a lot bigger; the shadows and outlines of furniture did hardly any good as she kept bumping into things, Natasha shooting her glares every time. Once they'd made it through the garage and out the side door, Natasha started talking. "Mission alert came in about twenty minutes ago; me, Rogers, and for some odd reason, you," she explained, walking at a brisk pace and leaving Katniss running to keep up.

"Mission alert?" Katniss asked, yawning. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere near the Indian Ocean, I didn't ask for the details," Natasha said. Katniss' eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she reached out, grabbing Natasha's arm and forcing her to spin around so they were face to face. Even there in the moonlight, Katniss could see the annoyance painted over her mother's face.

"The Indian Ocean?" she repeated, bewildered. "It's one in the morning, why are we needed at one in the morning over the Indian Ocean? This is…this is insane."

"I don't make the calls," Natasha said stiffly. "If I did, you would not be tagging along. Fury wants you on this mission though, I'm not entirely sure why though, but I'm not about to fight him on this one. You pick and choose your battles."

As they got closer to the landing pad, Katniss could see the outline of someone standing there. "You two ready?" the voice called out, and it clicked in her head that it was Steve. Even in the darkness, she could see the gleam of a silver star on his chest, rolling her eyes. His tactical uniform still paying homage to that ridiculous costume of his, she could tell that he still ran true to form. Natasha slowed her pace, Steve now only several feet away. "Natasha…" His voice was a scolding tone, and Katniss figured that he was referencing to her being there.

"Rogers," she responded, her tone just as stiff.

Steve looked over at Katniss, eyes roaming over her outfit. "How did you get put on this?" he asked.

Katniss shrugged. "Believe me, I'd much rather be in the bed asleep right now."

He turned to face Natasha, one of his eyebrows raised in confusion. "Fury called her in on this one?"

Natasha shrugged. "I guess, couldn't have come from anyone else. Plus, who else is dumb enough to assign her something that Clint will want to kill them for doing?" Katniss' mind had already started to take off, her heart racing as she thought back to everything Pierce was already making her do. Surely putting this past him was out of the question; for all she knew, Pierce had put her on the list to give Fury when he assigned the mission. She didn't realize how panicked she must have looked, because Natasha's voice was shaking her out of her thoughts. "You okay?" she asked.

"Never better," Katniss mumbled. Out of nowhere, the all-too-familiar sound of a Quinjet's engine was overhead, blinding lights shining down on them as it started to lower towards the landing pad. Natasha grabbed Katniss' wrist, forcing her to step back. The wind began to pick up as the Quinjet landed the cargo ramp lowering.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," a voice called out from inside the Quinjet. Natasha's grip on Katniss' grip remained as she stalked across the lawn and onto the cargo ramp, Steve following behind. Katniss kept her mouth shut and her head inclined towards the ground, trying to draw attention away from herself. That plan didn't work entirely too well.

"Who's this?" The same voice asked, Katniss finally putting the sound to a face as his eyes locked dead on her.

"Wrong question," Steve piped up from behind, chuckling bitterly.

Natasha shot the man a glare, tilting her head in Katniss' direction. "Surely you got Fury's roster."

The man's eyes lit up, arms folding over his chest. "So this is Romanoff-Barton," he mused, the smirk wiping off of his face the minute he caught sight of Natasha shooting him daggers.

"Rumlow, this is my daughter, Katniss. Consultant, shouldn't-be-on-this-mission, Barton will probably be all over your ass once he wakes up and realizes we're gone." She then turned to face Katniss, gesturing out towards Rumlow. "This is Brock Rumlow; STRIKE field agent and certified snarky son-of-a-bitch. If he gives you trouble, you give him hell."

"Oh relax, Romanoff," Rumlow called over his shoulder as Natasha stormed off into the Quinjet, leaving Katniss alone in front of him. "I'm not going to terrorize your daughter. Living with Stark for two years is punishment enough, I'd think." Rumlow then moved his gaze over to Katniss, a crooked smile on his face. "Welcome aboard," he said.

"Uh, thanks," Katniss said.

All around her, people were calling out commands and going in every different direction possible and it left Katniss in a near stranded position. She was frozen there in her tracks, unable to go along with the flow. The cargo ramp began to close behind her, Quinjet slowly starting to lift off of the landing pad. "We are in motion," she heard someone—most likely Natasha—say as they began to gain altitude fairly quickly.

"Katniss," Steve walked past her, giving her a look as he stopped. "You know you don't have to stand there the whole flight, you can come and sit back here with us. Indian Ocean's a good while away," he pointed out.

"Oh, um, yeah, okay," she stammered out, following along behind Steve.

It was interesting, getting to see how Steve and Natasha operated whenever they went on missions. The last time she'd seen them in action was New York, and even then that hadn't been the typical way to go about things. Natasha was a complete natural at what she did; Katniss knew it was because her life had been this for as long as she could remember, and it was fascinating watching her work. Steve did best in group environments mainly because he was born to lead, and just as he had naturally taken charge back in New York, it was the same here. They all followed his orders, asking him the important questions and going by what he said. She couldn't help but to smile bitterly, knowing that this was what he'd been up to whenever he jetted off to DC.

The ride over the Pacific Ocean did nothing but lull her back to sleep. Contrary to what she'd thought, settling in was nothing short of relaxing. The minute she'd finished settling all her stuff out in her room—Pepper's usual back when they stayed permanently in California—she and Clint had gone out to the tennis courts and put them to some actual use, the first time since they'd been installed most likely. Clint was fairly good with a tennis racquet, and the more rounds they played, the better Katniss got. Then Tony had made them sit down and eat dinner for entirely way too long—once he had pulled out a board game, everyone called it a night. What with being somewhat jetlagged and worn out, Katniss was asleep before she'd hit the pillow. Of course, that hadn't lasted too long; what with her nightmares of Pierce and Natasha waking her up in the middle of the night, getting a sound sleep was proving to be impossible.

"Alright, team, listen up," came Steve's voice. Raising her head slightly, she could see everyone standing around a monitor on the opposite end of the Quinjet. She figured this was her cue to get up and join the party, pulling herself out of her seat and ambling over to where everyone was at. Katniss squeezed in next to Natasha, arms folding over her chest as Rumlow began talking.

"The target is a mobile satellite launch platform, The Lemurian Star. It was sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety-three minutes ago," he started, pointing to the monitor.

"Any demands?" Steve asked.

"A billion and a half."

"Why so steep?"

"Because it's SHIELD's."

"So it's not off-course, it's trespass."

Natasha snorted. "I'm sure they have good reason."

"How many pirates are we talking?" Steve continued, ignoring Natasha's comment and the smirk on her face.

"Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc." A picture of Batroc appeared on the monitor as Rumlow carried on. "Ex-TGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's 'red notice'. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

Katniss glanced around at the group of agents, before speaking up. "Wait, is this our guy?" she asked, thinking back to the mission briefing as her eyes locked on Natasha. She was puzzled, returning the expression.

"_What_ guy?" Natasha reiterated.

"The one that's responsible for all the bo—" It registered in her head that she had said way too much, eyes wide as she fell silent almost instantly. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, she was terrified that Natasha could hear it beating. She'd said too much, she'd said way too much and now Pierce was going to find out, Pierce was going ship her parents off in a box to Antarctica—

"Hostages?" Steve's voice cut through her internal monologue cleanly, his voice calm.

"Mostly techs," Rumlow replied. "One officer, Jasper Sitwell." Rumlow pulled up a picture of Sitwell for emphasis, Katniss recalling her very vague and few memories of Agent Sitwell. He had never said much to her, had hardly even noticed her existence, but judging by the looks on Steve and Natasha's faces, he wasn't that memorable anyways. "He's in the galley," Rumlow added.

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Steve asked, Natasha chuckling in response. "Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions; Katniss, with her. Rumlow, you sweep above, find the hostages, get them to life pods. Get 'em out. Let's go."

"You heard the Captain, gear up!"

Natasha made the first movement, grabbing Katniss by the shoulder and pushing her backwards away from the group. "What the hell are you talking about?" she hissed, bending down to retrieve their parachutes from underneath one of the seats.

"I…I don't know—"

"No, you _don't_ know." Shoving a parachute pack in Katniss' arms, her eyes were dangerous as she lowered her voice. "You follow me; you don't ask questions, you do as I say. Got it?" Katniss nodded, watching Natasha as she bent down once again. "We should be fine if you've got this on you."

Pulling out an arrow quiver and a bow, she held them out in Katniss' direction. "Shoot straight. We jump in ten."

Jumping out of a moving Quinjet again wasn't necessarily something that Katniss had very high up on her to-do list, but it quickly moved to the top of her list when she saw Steve dive off the cargo ramp with nothing but his shield to accompany him. The wind rushing past her and flooding her ears reminded her of the time they'd made her jump out of the Quinjet in Germany, bringing on a rush of déjà vu. Fortunately, the parachute provided a smoother ride down to the deck of the ship where Steve was waiting on the rest of them, unconscious bodies littered all over the deck. The minute her feet hit the deck, Katniss was quick to strip herself of the parachute. Steve smirked. "Not a fan?" he asked.

"Tony might call me baby bird but I'm not big on flying."

"Katniss, with me!" Natasha said, waiting by one of the railings. Katniss rerouted herself, watching as Natasha pulled herself over the railing and leaped down to one of the lower decks. It had been awhile since she was required to be so agile, but Katniss knew that if there was anyone who wasn't going to wait around on her, it was without a doubt Natasha. Clutching on tightly to her bow, Katniss swung one leg over and pushed herself up, clearing over the railing and plummeting straight down beside Natasha.

"Plan?" Katniss asked as the two of them began to stride across the lower deck, fiddling with the bow and arrow in her hand.

"Secure the engine room, lock it, then we'll go from there. Take out whoever we need to in order to stay alive," she explained, pulling out her gun. "Stay there."

Katniss pressed herself against one of the pipes, quietly observing as Natasha rounded the corner. She had a sinister grin on her face, one hand leaning up against a wall and the other hanging by her side with her fingers wrapped tightly around the gun. "Hey sailor," she purred, before lifting her hand and slamming the butt of her gun into his forehead.

"Come on!" she yelled, motioning for Katniss to follow her. Natasha swung down below deck, Katniss mirroring her actions from the opposite side of the floor. Gunfire followed, most likely from the pirates, and Katniss was quick to draw her bow and shoot. Her arrow flew straight through one of the gaps in the metal grates serving as protection, directly between the eyes of one of the pirates. Feet landing on the ground with a loud clang, she drew another arrow and fired through the floor at another pirate below them before he even had time to lift his gun.

"Nice work," Natasha commented.

"Thanks."

They made their way above the engine room, Natasha holding out a hand to stop Katniss. "No, I need your eyes above me. If he gets too close for comfort, take him out," she instructed, leaping down off the platform. Katniss knelt down, pulling an arrow from her quiver and stringing it, ready to fire. "Hang on!" Natasha yelled a few seconds later, most likely into her comm. Katniss watched on silently as the pirate did his best to defend himself against her mother, but to no avail. Natasha was always two steps ahead, and within moments, he was on the ground.

"Engine room secure," she breathed out into her radio.

Katniss watched as the pirate slowly started to stand back up, more than likely wanting to grab Natasha off guard. Repositioning her bow, she locked in on the back of his head and let her arrow fly. He fell down right as Natasha turned around, pole in her hand to defend herself. Katniss jumped down, walking out of the darkness to meet back up with her mother. "Sorry, you were moving a bit too slow for my liking," she admitted.

Natasha just smirked, the corners of her lips turning upwards as she dropped the pole with a loud clang. Putting her hands on her hips, Katniss looked around. "Engine room's secure, what now?" Natasha, on the other hand, was already strolling off around the corner.

"Hey," Katniss whined, jogging to catch up with her. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"No," Natasha replied as she pushed open a door. "I need you to stand guard."

Katniss snorted. "Yeah, like hell I'm gonna do that."

Natasha's face twisted. "Fine. You can come in, and while I do my mission, you can inform me of yours." Reaching out and pushing a dumbfounded Katniss in the room first, she was right on her heels and closed the door behind her.

She stood there, unable to push any words past her lips as Natasha sauntered around the room to one of the abandoned computers. "So," she finally said, eyes on her work. "You want to explain to me how you know about those bombings?" Katniss was silent, still rendered speechless. Natasha lifted her head, giving her a look. "And don't tell me that you went through Clint's things and read through the mission briefing; he might be an idiot but he's not dumb."

"I can't tell you," Katniss finally muttered out. "I said way too much back there on the Quinjet."

"Yeah, no kidding. Did you forget that you can't trust anyone, even if they do work for SHIELD? I wasn't kidding when I said Rumlow's one son-of-a-bitch. He's a good guy, but every good guy I know has a track record. You can't just go blurting out stuff, especially stuff that no one aside from me, Clint, and Steve were let in on."

Glancing down at her hands, Katniss shrugged. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. Natasha's head shot up, one of her eyebrows lifted in curiosity.

"Are you?" There was a silence hanging over the both of them, with the exception of Natasha typing away. "Listen to me," she finally growled. "There are very few people you can trust, and they limit to me, Clint, Steve, and Tony. So whatever Fury's got you doing, you can tell me. We're not going to sell you out; we just need you to be honest with us."

Katniss pondered that for a moment. The way Natasha had said Fury planted a seed of an idea inside Katniss' head. _They think that I'm doing something under Fury. Pierce never said that I couldn't put all the blame on Fury. He just said I had to keep my instructions quiet._ "It's nothing, really," she insisted. "Fury told me that he wanted more than one person on this."

"There were already three of us, Katniss."

"Yeah, well, he wanted four," Katniss snapped, rubbing the back of her neck absentmindedly as she continued to weave her lie. "I told Fury that there was a chance that I might want to do more field work in the future, and he gave me this to help work on."

"Does this have anything to do with Steve?" Natasha interjected coolly. "I know you were furious with him when he left to join SHIELD, and I know that you've been holing up in your room at the Tower for the past few months; are you wanting to try and fix whatever you two messed up?"

"I have no idea where you got that idea—"

"It's not that far-fetched—"

"—everything has to do with Steve nowadays—"

"—don't get so defensive—"

"—don't bring up stupid ass theories—"

Their argument was cut short as the sound of the wall collapsing in, startling Katniss. Sheetrock and dust went soaring through the air, the source of the demolisher lying on the ground with a red-white-and-blue shield strapped to its back. He climbed off of the other man, likely Batroc, dusting off his suit. Natasha coughed nonchalantly, Steve's eyes flying up to where she was. The anger was colored all over his face as he stared at the pair, eyes flitting back and forth between them. Natasha was the first to speak.

"Well, this is awkward."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This chapter was honestly one of the longest things I've ever written, especially for this story, so if you've made it all the way to this without falling asleep, congratulations! You're either really bored or really in love with this story, I take either as a compliment. A lot happened in this chapter, and I didn't really feel comfortable splitting it anywhere even though I probably could have. There's just a lot that I want to happen in this story and I'm tying in two movie plotlines as well as an original one so I have to make some headway. So it looks like Katniss is already cracking early, letting it slip to Natasha that she knows about the mission, but she managed to slide out of it with an on-the-whim lie. Do you think Natasha's bought it or do you think she knows? When do you think Katniss is going to tell any of them about Pierce, if at all? Why was Katniss called to be on this mission in particular? You let me know what you thought of this chapter as well as anything else you'd like to tell me in that pretty little review you're leaving me, I love hearing your thoughts. Also, Natasha Romanoff is worthy. All I gotta say in reference to that AOU clip. **


	6. Civil War Interrupted

**A/N: Hello friends! I'm literally the worst person ever for taking so damn long to update this, I know, but with my pageant schedule and school piling on, I am ****_so_**** worn out by the time the weekend rolls around and all I want to do is sleep. However, my love for you all and my love for this story is strong enough to push through it and I figured I'd better spit out another chapter while I have the rarity of free time to keep you guys held over until my next update. I genuinely hope you enjoy this chapter, it's going to go in deeper on the rift between Katniss and her team and I'm pumped. She kind of loses it this chapter. Thank you for sticking with me, it does mean a lot. Without any further ado...**

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><p><span>Chapter Six: Civil War Interrupted<span>

Clint was waiting for them, breakfast ready.

For god's sake, Katniss didn't even know that Clint knew how to fix breakfast without burning down the whole mansion, but she supposed that some people weren't Tony and that there was plenty about Clint she didn't know. It was a two way street, especially with him. She didn't know much about him, and he didn't really know a lot about her either. She passed by him, dragging her feet and pulling her hair out of its tie, not even noticing that he was sitting at the table with arms folded. It wasn't until she heard the loud sound of him clearing his throat, and Steve's uncomfortable cough that she stopped in her tracks, spinning around slowly.

"Welcome home," he said dryly, his lips in a thin line. Out of the corner of her eye, Katniss caught sight of Natasha stiffening, her face frozen in her nonchalant expression. No one dared to make a sound, all of them either looking at someone or avoiding all eye contact. That was, until there came a loud bang from somewhere in the kitchen.

"Shit!"

Throwing his head back in defeat, Clint groaned loudly. "Oh for fuck's sake, Tony!"

"It wasn't my fault, god, bird-boy!" A few moments later, Tony appeared, a rather sheepish smile spreading over his lips once he caught sight of Natasha, Steve and Katniss. "Nice for you all to return to us, in one piece I take it," he drawled, looking them up and down.

"How did you even—"

"Romanoff, when you land a Quinjet on my landing pad, I know about it. They're not exactly built to resemble that of a church mouse," Tony interrupted Natasha, resting one of his hands on his hips. "And besides, my bed time is typically no earlier than three, I was watching from my window as you went on your magic carpet ride far far away."

Katniss' eyes moved off of the place on the wall she'd been staring at, finding Clint's own burning holes in her. She reached up, scratching behind her ear awkwardly in order to put idle hands to use. "What I want to know," he said coolly, resting his hands palms down on the table. "Is why _she_ was with them."

"The alert came in, she was on the list," Natasha responded casually.

Clint's retort came hurtling back almost instantly. "But why?" Natasha didn't verbally answer, just shrugged one of her shoulders and flicked her gaze over at Katniss.

She felt the blood rush out of her face. _Of course_, if Natasha had started getting suspicious, then there was no doubt that Clint had too. The two of them operated like a unit, an extension of the other. Whatever one was thinking, the other was digging around and trying to find more on it. Every eye in the room was locked on Katniss, and she did her best not to visibly squirm underneath all of their pressure. "What?" she finally found herself snapping. "What makes you think I know why I was on the call? Why does the sun come up every morning?"

Tony raised his hands up in surrender, his eyes wide. "Whoa there, baby bird, no need to chew us up and spit us out. All we did was ask you a question."

"Yeah, a dumb one," she muttered under her breath.

One of Natasha's eyebrows raised ever so slightly, her head turning to face Katniss. "No, not a dumb one," she countered stiffly. "A legitimate question that I want to know the answer to, just as much as Clint and everyone else does." She then glanced back over at Clint. "As soon as I get started on debrief, I'm asking Fury what the hell he's smoking, thinking he can send her into the field when she's a consultant."

Katniss stiffened. Somehow, she'd assumed that by putting all the blame on Fury, her problems with Alexander Pierce pulling her puppet strings along would have magically dissipated. She'd forgotten that lies always had a funny way of coming back to bite someone in the ass. "There's no damn reason to go to Fury about it," she insisted. "I wanted more field work, I told you. I didn't realize he'd actually take me serious and put me on this kind of mission. My choices, Fury's decision, end of discussion."

"That is _not—"_

"What, my call?" she fired back in Clint's direction. "I made the choice to be a consultant, I think I've got the right to change my mind and go into field work. You were the one who said I was independent enough to make my own shots all those years ago, remember?"

Clint tensed up. "Contrary to your cozy little bubble inside Stark—

"—Avengers—"

"—Tower," Clint growled, ignoring Tony's attempt at correcting him. "Things at SHIELD are different than they were two years ago. You don't know what you're signing yourself up for."

Katniss threw her hands up in defeat, groaning. "I'm not going to stand here and argue this with you all, this is supposed to be breakfast, not some sort of intervention." She turned sharply on her heel, storming through the pristine hallways of Tony's mansion. Looking down, she could see that her hands were still trembling, and she knew it wasn't from the Quinjet ride either. Already she was trapped inside her own web of lies, it quickly unraveling around her. She couldn't keep up with the façade; there was always an addendum to it because Natasha and Clint and everyone else were thorough. They wanted answers to questions she hadn't even thought about, and she was tripping herself up every time they got the slightest bit closer.

It was very simple, very clear in Katniss' head. Pierce was going to punish her because she didn't know how to keep her calm, and she was going to get everyone around her hurt or possibly killed. Slamming the door to the guest room shut, she twisted the lock angrily and let out a frustrated scream.

She didn't go to breakfast.

**. . .**

Outside in a yard that Tony had tucked far away on the opposite end of the mansion, Katniss reached up and wiped her forehead free of sweat with her forearm. She'd been firing at the same target for hours, endless arrows sticking out of various places on a dummy she'd dragged from the gym and set up. Her own personal form of therapy was going in and shooting relentlessly, and it typically resulted in an unfit target by the time she was done, with endless arrowhead-sized holes littered over every square inch.

It had been a frustrating day and it wasn't even anywhere close to its end. Katniss had no idea how in the hell she was going to make it through the rest of this mission, because it was only day one and she wanted nothing more than to go back home and hole up on the thirteenth floor of the Tower. She had already kept to the guest room in an attempt to avoid her parents, Steve, and Tony, because carrying on conversations with them wasn't very high on her to do list. The rundown played through smoothly and vividly in her head: start talking, they try to move the conversation to being on the roster, the whole conversation derails. She knew that she couldn't keep lying to everyone, but she couldn't just start telling the truth. Both of those options cost her her own skin, so she found it easier to just avoid altogether.

Katniss heard the glass doors slide apart, glancing over her shoulder to see who it was. Strolling out was none other than Steven Rogers, probably the last person on the face of the planet that she could have ever wanted to see. She would have taken Rumlow over him at this point. Scowling, she fidgeted with the end of the arrow as she placed it against the bowstring. "Please tell me you're not here to berate me like everyone else, because really, I'm not in the mood." Katniss lifted her bow, biting her lip as she aimed and let the arrow fly.

Twisting around, she was surprised to see a look of nonchalance on Steve's face. She would have assumed that his expression would have been warped into a grimace or one of his signature glares, but instead, he was expressionless. "I'm not here to berate you, you don't have to tear my head off," he said. "I just wanted to talk."

"Yeah?" Katniss uttered out, grinding her teeth together as she started to line up her next arrow with the target. "Don't really know if I'm in the mood for that either."

"Would you put down the bow and look at me?" he said, his voice strangled. Lowering her bow slowly, she turned on her heel so she was facing them. "Look, I know Natasha and Clint are trying to play twenty questions with you—"

"—and what are you doing, exactly? Seems to me you're about to launch into the exact same thing," she snapped. "I'm not supposed to be interfering, I should stick with being a consultant, going on that mission last night was dangerous and stupid, Fury's going to get his balls blown off; I get the gist of it all, Steve. I wish you guys would just stop worrying so much about me."

Katniss could feel Steve's eyes burning into her as she swiveled back towards her target, raising the arrow to keep firing. Maybe if she ignored him, he would go away. Unfortunately, that was a tall order, and Steve wasn't one to meet the expectations she had. "You want us to stop worrying about you?"

"God, here we go," she groaned, talking on top of him. Steve was bewildered at this point.

"Katniss, everyone sees it but you! You're fidgety all the time, the bags on your eyes are enough proof that you're not getting any sleep, and you're being asked to come on missions that you're not trained for whatsoever? I don't see how we couldn't worry about you! You walk around like you're in a perpetual state of having seen a ghost; we're not just going to ignore that."

Throwing her bow down on the ground in exasperation, she rounded on Steve. "Oh yeah? Then why aren't you guys worrying about Tony? Tony hasn't slept in _months_, his alcoholism is at an all time high, and yet I haven't seen any of you expressing the slightest bit of concern in his mental state or whether or not he's okay," she spat venomously.

"Do you even hear yourself?"

"Plain as day, Rogers!"

"Good, then you'd know you sound like the complete opposite of yourself!"

"How do you know that? You don't know anything! You were the one who traipsed off to fucking DC for over a year and a half; you have no idea when it comes to knowing anything about me or _what_ I've become!" Katniss all but screamed.

"You don't think I don't know you?" Steve grilled. "Because believe me, I know you, Katniss. I know that whenever you're lining up a precise shot, your upper lip twitches before you shoot it, I know that whenever you're in hand to hand combat your first move is always a right hook to the jaw, I know that you do most things better under pressure, so don't say that _I_ don't know you!"

Katniss felt as though she was about to combust in pure anger and frustration that Steve had the audacity to stand in front of her and say something like that. Gritting her teeth together so hard that it could have shattered them like glass, her eyes narrowed into slits. "You think you know me?" she threatened.

"Yeah, I kind of do!"

Katniss wasn't sure where the rush of adrenaline came from, but the next thing she knew she was rearing her fist back and bringing it up to connect with his jaw line. Steve's super soldier instincts snapped in place, his hand flying up and catching her hand mid-punch. "Always a right hook to the jaw," he noted, growling. She took the window of vulnerability as an opportunity and brought her leg up, kneeing him in the chest to push him off of her. He stumbled backward, Katniss moving in as she continued swinging. Steve was ducking from each hit, trying to catch her rogue fists. "Katniss, I'm not gonna fight you."

"If you know me so well, you'd know the moves to beat me!" she screeched, still swinging blindly. She was furious as she swiped at him, him dodging every move she made. "Fight back, you coward!" She jumped on him, her legs looping around his torso. With the tight grip on his arm, she yanked him downwards and flipped right over him in a neat roll. A low grunt escaped him as his back hit the ground roughly, Katniss digging her fingernails into the tender flesh of his forearm. The less he fought back, the angrier she got. Steve could fight just fine, she knew it. If anything, he was something like an equal partner when it came to sparring, more so than Clint or Natasha, and he was able to keep up and one-up her in a fight. She didn't know why he wasn't putting forth the effort in subduing her.

"Come on," she hissed as she pinned him down, raising one of her hands to bring it right across his cheek with a loud crack. "Come on!" Her eyes were locked dead on Steve's; she could imagine that her own were feral and wild, but his were still in that state of nonchalance, like this was nothing. It let the snap pass right underneath her radar, taken aback as he grabbed one of her balled up fists and used it to throw her off of him.

A small squeal escaping her, Katniss found herself on the ground underneath Steve. One of his legs on either side of her, he restrained both of her arms down on their respective side and leant down so their faces were only several inches apart. "I'm _not_ fighting you," he hissed. A strangled sort of noise pushing its way through her throat, Katniss brought her head up with a jerk, knocking into his as hard as she could possibly manage. He moaned, relieving some of the grip he had on her and allowed her to push him off her.

Getting back up on her feet, she closed in on him and swung her fist down in an attempt to punch him in the face, what with the distinct height difference between the two of them. Her fist collided with his face, but he didn't give her time to draw it back and strike again. Instead, his hand tightened around her wrist, standing up and clutching onto her other wrist. His face was twisted into a snarl as he stormed backwards, dragging her with him and her feet stumbling over each other. Her back collided with the tree, both of her hands pinned directly over her head. She had definitely gotten him angry, judging by the look on his face, but there was still that eerie calmness in his eyes.

She thrashed against his grip, growling and screaming as she tried to break loose. Katniss felt like an animal, and Steve had captured her. He was stronger than her, and he wasn't letting her budge under any means. Gnashing her teeth together, she glared up at him with a look laced with daggers.

"He—_whoa_!"

"What the fuck?"

Just like that, the fight was over. Katniss found her wrists being released from their captivity and her arms involuntarily falling to her sides. Steve stepped away from the tree as Clint and Tony all but ran out to where they were. "What the hell were you thinking, Rogers?" Clint barked, finger pointed accusingly in Steve's direction.

"Ask your daughter that," Steve said coolly. It was like a switched had flicked off in Katniss' mind, her eyes slits as she stomped off of the above ground tree roots and in Steve's direction. Tony, who was in mid-stroll over to where the group was, darted out and intercepted Katniss before she'd made it halfway. His eyes wide, he reeled her in and snaked his arms around her so she couldn't get loose.

"Katniss, what's gotten into you?" Tony asked, his voice low. It took a few moments for Katniss to redirect her glare off of Steve to make the eye contact with Tony. His face was full of concern, and she knew that he hadn't called her Katniss like he usually did to mock her. It was serious.

"I don't know, but I'm starting to think coming out here was worse for you as opposed to better," Clint replied. "We've only been here one day and you're acting like you've lost your mind; maybe you need to go back home."

Katniss started squirming around in Tony's grip. "No!" she cried out almost instantly. "You can't send me home. I can't leave."

"Really, 'cause I'm pretty sure we can," Tony piped up. "Ain't a thing for me to call up a plane and put you on the first one back to the Tower."

"You can't do that!"

"Then act like you have some goddamn sense, Katniss!" Clint thundered. "You're walking around like you're a time bomb on the verge of exploding at any second."

"Did someone say bomb?" Their heads all turned to the sound of the voice, just to see Natasha standing right outside of the glass doors, arms folded across her chest.

"Yeah, in reference your daughter," Tony said, ignoring all of the death glares Katniss was shooting his way.

"Tasha, why aren't you—"

"We've got a problem," Natasha interrupted Clint smoothly. "I just got word that there was another explosion. Hospital called about five minutes ago, said one of our liabilities was on site and got injured."

"Who?" Natasha was silent, blinking a few times as though she hadn't heard Tony's question. "Natasha, who?"

"Harold Hogan."

The grip around Katniss' chest slacked as Tony backed away from her slowly. It was like someone had sucked all the air out of their environment, because even Katniss could feel the heavy weight on her chest. Tony stumbled away blindly in the direction of the door, Clint and Steve behind him. Katniss stood there in her place, dumbfounded. Happy had being in an accident, one of the explosions, and he was now in the hospital. She'd just seen him yesterday when they'd pulled into the mansion for the first time, how in the _hell_ had this happened?

She started towards the glass doors, but Natasha cleared her throat loudly and shook Katniss right out of her panicked train of thought. "Tony and the boys can handle it," she said, her voice clipped. "They won't let in too many visitors anyways."

Katniss lifted her head, her eyes meeting Natasha's steely gaze. The look on her face said it all, really.

**. . .**

**_ROMANOFF-BARTON, KATNISS DELIA  
>SHIELD OPERATIVE #7213<br>ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION_**

**_MESSAGE: Directory Fury has sent Agent Romanoff on a mission to retrieve information on Project: Insight, information that neither he nor Agent Romanoff have clearance to be in possession of. You are to obtain this information and hand it in to my office as soon as possible, without hesitations. If I find that you have been in possession of the information without turning it over or destroying it, I will see to making sure Agent(s) Barton and Romanoff are on the receiving end of the repercussions. This information will be harbored on something small and portable, most likely a computer chip or flash drive. Report back with a status within the next twenty-four hours or do expect a more urgent form of communication from my offices. Delete as soon as finished.  
>- Alexander Pierce, SHIELD Senior Official<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Uh oh. Looks like Katniss is in big trouble, both with Natasha as well as her services for Pierce. It should be interesting, how she chooses to act on those orders. I did my best to keep it entertaining, and what's more entertaining than a huge group fight? I really wanted another Steveniss interaction—was I the only one who had figured they'd kiss when he leant down, because I honestly thought that was where I would take it for a second. And Happy's in the hospital, Tony and the gang are off to go check in him, Katniss is exploding on everyone and Natasha is about to be no exception. How do you think Natasha is going to handle Katniss wanting that flash drive, and how do you think Katniss is even going to obtain it. What does Happy being in the hospital mean for the group? What angle is Pierce playing at now—because his transmissions are becoming more and more threatening. Let me know in a review below; they make me write a lot faster, ask anyone. They also keep me going, because I like knowing you guys are still interested in this story. Do it, or else you'll find yourself pinned against a tree in quite the uncomfortable position.**


	7. Knowledge is Power (and Danger)

**A/N: Well well, happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday you guys! This is the weekend of stories even though I'm totally behind on what I aspired to get done—we'll just see how it goes. I've been in Tennessee all weekend enjoying time with my family and I hope that you guys have been doing the same. But now it's time to spend time with my ****_other_**** family, and you can maybe guess who that is. Thank you again for all of your reviews, I'm so glad you guys are still interested in this story. I know it's not as action-packed right now but it'll get there, I promise. We're still building up to the real good stuff. It means a lot that you guys still care about this little thing. The plan is to update this today, Paper Stars on my Tumblr tomorrow (it's a Rennerson story, check it out, you may love it, who knows) and maybe a special something heading your way on Sunday? Who knows. In the mean time, enjoy. :)**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Seven: Knowledge is Power (and Danger)<span>

Katniss had numbly walked into the house with Natasha on her heels, able to feel the daggers she was shooting right in her back. Tony was shouting out obscenities as he flew around the house like a whirlwind, trying to get himself together before they took off. Clint and Steve were nowhere in sight as Katniss watched Tony dart around as though he was a chicken with his head cut off. He was going out of his mind and Katniss could do nothing but stand there frozen, being an onlooker. She felt a dainty hand land on her shoulder, Natasha's low voice in her ear. "Go downstairs to Tony's lab and wait for me," she instructed. Katniss didn't move. Again, Natasha leaned in. "Now."

Something in Katniss began to will her feet forward, moving like a zombie towards Tony's lab. All she could think of was Tony's face and the sheer anger in his voice after Natasha had said Happy's name. Katniss wanted to know what had happened to Happy; what Natasha had meant by on site or what the damage done by the explosion was, but it wasn't like she was going to get any type of answers. Instead, she just kept adding on to the list of questions that was steadily growing at this rate.

Making it inside of Tony's lab, the glass doors closed behind her as she looked around. The lab was messier than his one back at home in Avengers Tower; parts and tools were scattered everywhere amidst food trash and crumpled up pieces of paper. Katniss could tell that each of the pieces went to another Iron Man suit, and she wondered just how many additions he'd made to the Mark. Chances are, the number would surprise her, and she had high expectations.

Katniss began to wander through the lab, her hand running over some of the lab tables and different pieces Tony had manufactured. No wonder that he was losing so much sleep; he had been working on so much and there seemed to be no end goal in sight. Biting her lip and frowning in disapproval, she shook her head at the thought of Tony losing all his sleep over something as simple as this. New York had done him in in so many different ways, beyond her imagination's worth and it was clearly not getting better. She was so lost in thought fretting over Tony's wellbeing that she almost didn't hear the sound of the doors sliding open once again.

She turned around right as she caught sight of Natasha approaching, her face in a deadest expression. "I—" Katniss started, but she never finished.

Natasha knocked the words right out of her mouth as both her hands wrapped around Katniss' arms, slamming her against one of the lab tables forcefully. Pieces and tools clattered straight to the ground, Natasha's fingernails digging into skin. "What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" she hissed between her clenched teeth, rattling Katniss again for emphasis. "First you explode this morning for no damn reason, then you're about to rip Steve a new one and claw his eyes out for speaking to you? I know that I might not be the most pleasant person ever but you sure are making your way on up the list."

"Let go of me," Katniss howled. Natasha's grip didn't slacken any, just another shove against the table. "Look, I didn't mean—"

"Cut the bullshit, you meant every bit of it and you know it."

Katniss reached up, pushing Natasha off of her forcefully. "You're right; I did mean every bit of it. I want you and Dad and Steve and Tony and everyone else _off of my fucking case._" Her eyes narrowed into slits as she sized up her mother, Natasha doing the same.

In the time that Katniss had known her mother, she'd never seen her go into Widow mode. Sure, she'd seen her mom get serious and get tough when it came to taking down the bad guy, but according to what Clint had told her, it was nothing compared to what she had been like before SHIELD got to her. She was like a wild animal, he'd said; she was feral and there was no stopping her. Looking at her from her stance a few feet away, she had a dangerous look in her eyes, her teeth grinding together. "I'm giving you one chance," she snarled, upper lip curling, like a dog. "You tell me why you're really here, or I'm going to Fury."

Katniss' blood ran cold, and she was sure that the look on her face mirrored the feeling. "I…" she stammered out, voice octaves softer than it had been initially. "You can't go to Fury."

"Right, because he has nothing to do with any of this?" Natasha prompted, and that was the minute that Katniss knew Natasha was on to her. Somewhere deep inside her subconscious, she knew it had been child's play, thinking she could pull one over on the Black Widow. Folding her arms of her chest, Natasha continued. "It's Pierce, isn't it? He was the one who you were talking to in that office at Tony's party?" Her voice wasn't as sharp as it had been, but there was still a certain danger lingering in her tone.

Katniss knotted her fists into her hair, yanking angrily on the roots from frustration as she turned away from Natasha. "It's not like I asked him to drag me off to some room and give me an itinerary that I wanted nothing to do with," she shouted in exasperation. "I couldn't not do what he asked, not when he was threatening you and Clint and everyone else that I cared about."

"Why didn't you say something?" Natasha coaxed. "You're not supposed to protect us, it's supposed to be the other way around—"

"Not when he's doing the kind of threatening he is. These threats aren't just about employment anymore, they're getting more and more vague and I can't just sit there and let him hurt you and Clint! I have to do whatever he asks of me."

Natasha ran her fingers through her hair, sighing. She opened her mouth, reciting what seemed like a mantra Katniss and herself had lived by for years now. "You are an Avenger," she started slowly, eyes closed. "And an Avenger only. You're only allowed to be used at SHIELD's disposal—"

Katniss had had enough, growing frustrated as she slammed her hands down on a lab table and throwing all of the contents into the floor with the swipe of her hand. "He doesn't care!" she shrieked, her vocal cords straining. Whirling around, she stared at her mother with frantic eyes, tears pricking at the corners. "Pierce does not care. I told him that and his response is that you and Clint and Steve _are._ Piece doesn't give a shit." The words flew out of Katniss' mouth forcefully, her breathing shaky as she stared at Natasha.

"So what does he want? What does he want with you, what makes you so crucial to…whatever plan he's got brewing?" Natasha finally asked, throwing her hands up and letting them slap her thighs as they fell.

"I…I don't know." Katniss was stumbling over her own words, the tears blinding her as they involuntarily rolled down her cheeks. "I don't know, I don't _know!_ He just wants me, wants me to distract people…I don't know why or what for, but I'm a distraction. Ever since New York people ask too many questions, draw all the wrong conclusions and he wants for me to tell them it's not true, that New York was a freak incident—"

"—but New York wasn't a freak incident," Natasha interrupted, falling silent after seeing the rabid look on her daughter's face.

"He wants to rebuild the trust people have for a government agency most people didn't know existed until _after_ New York and I don't know how to do half the shit he wants me to do, I don't even know what half of his directions that he sends me means! All I know is that I can't let him take you away from me, dammit. I just…he can't take you away."

Natasha's eyes were locked dead on her daughter, watching as Katniss' chest rose and fell quickly with her now irregular breathing trying to stabilize. Taking a deep breath, Natasha started to speak. "Look, I know you don't want me to, but—"

"No," Katniss warned, her eyes growing wide as she jabbed a finger towards the cavity of Natasha's chest. "No. You _cannot_ tell him. I wasn't even supposed to tell you; for god's sake, you might be shipped off in a box overnight now that I've told you Pierce has got every damn eye he can think of on me. If you tell Clint, I swear to _god_ I will never forgive you."

"I have to tell him, Katniss, you're his child. You saw what he almost did to Fury two years ago when he pulled you from the safe house, do you really want another episode?" Natasha looked around the room before her eyes fell back on Katniss. "Besides, you won't be in it alone if you tell him, we can help you, protect you—"

"Stop saying you can fucking protect me, you _can't!"_ Katniss shrieked, lashing out both verbally and physically, her hand knocking off a face mask for another Iron Man suit into the wall behind her. "You can't protect me from this. You can't protect me from anything anymore! That ended the minute Fury pulled me out of those woods. Pierce is not going to let you protect me; he's going to kill you if he knows that I said anything about this! Happy was probably my fault—"

"Katniss, Happy's accident was _not_ your fault—"

"—and how do you know that? Huh? It might be that bomber, but how do you know if Pierce isn't behind it? He's everywhere, Natasha! It's possible! It could be any of us next, any of us!"

The tears kept flowing as Katniss ripped at the contents on the nearby tables, throwing them towards the wall and scratchy screams leaving her throat. Over and over again, she sobbed the same thing: "Just let me go!" The plea ripped from her as she bent over, Natasha's arms locking around her torso and trying to pull her away from Tony's things. Natasha was strong, but Katniss' adrenaline rush as she completely panicked was stronger as she thrashed against her mother's grip.

"Katniss…Katniss, shh," Natasha soothed, smoothing back the dark mess of hair on her daughter's head. "Listen to me. Everything is going to be okay, you're going to be okay. No one else is going to get hurt. But you have to promise me that you're not going to take any more of his instructions and that you're not going to be his puppet. The more you do for him, the more he's going to take advantage of you and you're going to turn into a puppet. Listen, you can't keep this up, okay? It's what he wants."

Katniss only wished she could do as her mother asked.

**. . .**

Tony, Clint, and Steve had yet to return, so Natasha and Katniss had the house to themselves for the remainder of the evening. After her meltdown in the lab, Natasha had left Katniss be, allowing her access to any files she wanted to look at that involved the bombings. A certain weight felt as though it had been lifted off her shoulders now that her mom knew something in terms of what her mission was, but in its place a heavier weight had been added. She didn't even want to think of the repercussions that would come along if Pierce discovered anything, so she tried to reassure herself with the thought that at least it was Natasha who knew. Natasha had secrets that had age-old secrets of their own, she could handle herself. Someone like Clint or god forbid, Steve, would have thrown her under the bus unintentionally but nonetheless.

The files that Natasha had let her read were intriguing at the slightest. According to the various reports and accounts of each and every 'bombing', they were merely something else being covered up as terrorist attacks, since veterans of war were involved in several. Whoever had come up with that ploy had crafted the image of something called the Mandarin, and whether or not he was even associated with what was going on was beyond Katniss. In sloppy handwriting and circled in red pen at the bottom of one of the documents, Natasha had written 'Steve—SSS, Abraham Erskine'. She had no idea what that could have possibly meant.

The longer she spent flipping through reports and research, the more she found herself looking at a clock. Pierce's deadline on the flash drive was nearing and she had said absolutely nothing about it. Chances were he wasn't going to wait around forever for an answer, much less giving her any sort of extension. She hated to move in on Natasha and her personal space so soon, especially after the Happy incident and her meltdown in the lab, but she had to do what she had to do. Regardless of what her mother wanted, Katniss had to protect them. Being selfish was a quality that was no longer allowed.

Glancing up at the clock after reading Natasha's notes in the margins of a report, she bit down on her lip. It was already past midnight, and something in her told her that there was a transmission from Pierce's offices—whatever the hell he meant by _that_—awaiting her. "JARVIS," Katniss called out warily.

"Yes, Miss Romanoff-Barton?" came the smooth voice of the AI.

Straightening up on her bed, she closed the file warily and picked up the tablet Natasha had lent her. "Pull up security feeds for the house, room by room." The screen on the tablet shifted, JARVIS pulling images from each room in the house up in different little boxes across the screen. Scanning over each box, Katniss tried to pinpoint each room and whether or not it was occupied. "Zoom in on the lab," she added, and the small little box in the corner grew larger. Katniss watched as a black-and-white grainy film Natasha in the lab paced back and forth. _If she's in the lab, her room is unoccupied, and I'd bet my money that drive is in there._

"Thanks JARVIS," Katniss said as she threw the tablet across the bed, rolling off and letting her feet hit the floor.

"Any time, Miss Romanoff-Barton."

Katniss was sure to pull the door open as quietly, careful to make as little noise as possible. If Natasha caught any wind of movement, she'd be on her trail faster than she'd have time to run. Her footsteps were light and quick as she moved through the dark mansion, heart hammering in her ears. Natasha and Clint's room was on the opposite end of the house, behind a white door with a handmade sign on the doorknob with Tony's chicken scratch scribbled on there, the words nearly illegible. Pressing her ear to the door, Katniss' shaking hands found the knob and slowly turned it.

Pushing the door open, Katniss slipped in before closing it softly behind her. Her hands moved along the wall, searching for a switch. Fingers moving up the surface of the wall, they caught a lever and pushed it up, light flooding the room. If she didn't know any better, she would have figured the room was uninhabited. The bed was perfectly made with hardly any personal touches to the room that signaled people slept there every night.

"Okay, if I was a world-renowned assassin, where would I store a flash drive?" Katniss muttered under her breath, resting her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. Her eyes flitted back and forth before she saw the light catch something resting on the dresser. Moving towards it with eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she realized that it was a necklace resting atop a jewelry box.

Her fingers reached out to grab the necklace, the miniscule charm sitting in the palm of her hand. It was a tiny little arrow on a silver chain; very plain and simple, but very Natasha. With one hand clutching onto the necklace's chain, she opened the jewelry box carefully with bated breath. There was nothing in there. "Dammit," Katniss hissed, her shoulders falling in defeat.

She stared at the empty box, mind racing. _If I was a spy, I wouldn't leave something out in the open. Sure, I'd put it in something inconspicuous, but I'd go the extra mile._ Hoping that her hunch would lead her to the jackpot, she reached in the box and grasped onto one of the dividers that were meant to store rings. "Come on," she whispered in her pause before pulling up on the bottom, it sure enough rising up and out of the jewelry box. _Fake bottom, knew it._

Sure enough, resting there in the fake bottom was a small little silver flash drive, exactly what Pierce had requested. Looking over her shoulder for good measure, she pocketed the drive and slammed the bottom back into the jewelry box. She closed the lid, carefully arranging the necklace on top in the exact way that she had found it, using her still-shaking index fingers to shape the chain in the way she wanted. Once it looked perfect, she turned on her heel, flicked the light switch on her way out and closed the door behind her. There was only one thing left to do, and that was get this to Pierce as fast as she could before he decided to evict Natasha in the early hours of the morning.

_Sorry, Natasha._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Damn, if she didn't go through with it. Of course, I still have a lot more planned and Katniss isn't going to get away with stealing the flash drive as easily as she hopes, but for now, it looks like she's still going along with Pierce's instructions. Why do you think she's so adamant about following his orders; can it be about anything other than wanting to keep Natasha and Clint safe? Do you think Natasha is going to tell Clint or keep quiet, especially after she notices that the drive is missing? And this one doesn't have a whole lot to do with the characters, but how do you think the IM3 plot is going to weave itself in here? I'm just curious. I also loved the whole Katasha (my pair names are back, man) interaction, it was so fun to write. What did you guys think? Let me know what you thought about all of these questions, as well as anything else you may want to add. Reviews make me write a whole lot faster, just in case you were wondering, and it does get a whole hell of a lot more exciting. If I were you, I'd review, or else Natasha is going to jump you—and not in a good way.**


	8. The Devil Comes Around

**A/N: I am the worst at updating now that school is back; like, I used to be able to decide on a day that I'd update but now it's just like whenever I have time to update this thing, I'm gonna update it. And while I intend to update on Fridays, I usually come home with the migraine from hell. But regardless, I have a little time and I'm going to update this for you! I'm also working on a part 2 trailer for this; hopefully you all will enjoy it! For the time being…well, you know the drill. I write, you read and review, I update, magic happens. Enjoy.**

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><p><span>Chapter Eight: The Devil Comes Around<span>

**_ROMANOFF-BARTON, KATNISS DELIA  
>SHIELD OPERATIVE #7213<br>ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION_**

**_MESSAGE: Your delivery to SHIELD HQ has been confirmed and intercepted. Your service and compliance is well appreciated. Expect contact from this message feed in the next 24-48 hours with further instructions. Delete as soon as finished.  
>- Alexander Pierce, SHIELD Senior Official<em>**

**. . .**

The sounds of war waging in the living room awoke Katniss from an already restless sleep, a groan falling out of her lips. It had already been something like Fight Club ever since Happy had been hospitalized and Tony was on edge 'round the clock, with him claiming that everyone was "designed to get on his nerves" and holing down in his lab. It seemed to Katniss that everyone was beginning to pick up on the antics she'd seen manifesting for years, deeming them as signs of the same self-destructive behavior she was waltzing down the path of. While Tony defended himself to the last straw, Katniss chose to ignore them altogether. She was pretty sure her lower lip had perfect indentation marks of her front teeth where she had forced herself to keep her mouth shut whenever they started talking.

She'd learned that Clint and Steve especially were all over her, trying to get answers that she either didn't have or wasn't allowed to give. Natasha would shoot her inconspicuous glances in the middle of the lectures that Katniss let fly right over her head, as if she was trying to urge Katniss to tell them the truth about why she was really in California. Natasha didn't understand that it wasn't that simple. Going to Clint or Steve two years ago would have made sense; they were always on the same page as her when it came to most things. Nowadays, they were on a completely different book than her. They would be ready to charge straight into the fight, whereas Katniss knew that it was so much more than running off of rash impulses and decisions. Natasha understood that somewhat—keyword being _somewhat._

"Natasha, for the love of _god—"_

"I have no control over this, Anthony!"

"Well he's sure as hell not staying!"

Groaning over the sounds of the argument, Katniss dragged her hands down the side of her face and kicked the covers off the lower half of her body. Her feet met the floor, making their way towards the door. Katniss took a deep breath before placing her hand on the door handle, pulling it open only a little bit just so she could slip out of the opening. The voices coming down the hall were no longer muffled and several times louder than they had been, growing in volume the closer she got to the living room.

Rounding the corner, Katniss could see that everyone was already in their positions, ready to tear each other to shreds. Tony was standing up, his face twisted into a scowl. Natasha was sitting down on the couch next to Clint; she was on the very edge whereas Clint was relaxed—almost too relaxed to be comfortable. And of course, Steve, in all his meddling glory, was between Tony and Natasha, prepared to break up a fight that he wasn't even involved in.

Steve was the first one to lay eyes on her, his expression changing. The others caught on, a ripple effect over the air surrounding them in the room. Katniss stared at them confused, slightly puzzled and part of her still asleep. It took a moment for her to realize that she had their undivided attention. "Could you guys keep it down?" she asked. "Some of us don't get enough sleep as it is."

They all looked back at her with what felt like blank stares, no one moving to make any sort of response. Figuring she'd made her point—or at least, until she got back to her room—she nodded, turning on her heel to head back to her bedroom. "Wait," Natasha quickly spit out, Katniss stopping in her tracks. "You can't leave."

Katniss turned back around slowly, eyebrows knotted in even more confusion. "Uh, yes she can," Tony said. "She's leaving right now, in fact." It sunk in that they were arguing over her, which kept her feet planted firmly on the ground.

Natasha slowly rose from her seat, Steve bristling as he readied himself to move forward. "Tony, I want her to leave just as much as you do, but we _can't_, it isn't up to us," she growled, her voice dangerously low.

"Ever since you showed back up, you act like it's all of a sudden your right to take care of her," Tony snarled. Natasha was bewildered, staring at him as though he'd lost his mind.

"That's kind of because she is! Last time I checked, I was the one who gave birth to her almost twenty years ago, not you."

"For the past two years, we have been doing fine, me and her. No one came knocking at ungodly hours, putting her on STRIKE team missions, targeting her, not until _you_ showed back up. She's an adult, Natasha."

"She's been living with you for the past two years and the two of you are _not_ stable! She hasn't been in a position to make a good decision for herself in a long time, not since New York royally screwed the both of your minds over."

"Need I remind you that you were the one who left her to fend for herself all those years ago?"

"Guys!" Katniss finally yelled out, sensing the face that Natasha was only two seconds—and steps—away from tearing Tony's face into shreds. They all turned to look back at her, the color deep in Tony's face and Natasha's eyes were feral. "What…what is all of this about?"

"You're wanted," Clint murmured. "Upstairs."

Katniss glanced around the room at all of them. "But you're all down here," she finally replied.

"It's not us," Natasha said, the tone in her voice enough to clue Katniss in on what was going on. The blood ran cold through her veins, and she was almost positive that she'd made some sort of terrified look, judging by the content smirk on Tony's face.

She cleared her throat nervously. "Okay…um, where…you know, where—"

"Do not tell her," Tony threatened, but Natasha wasn't even looking in his direction.

"Third door on the left."

Katniss nodded, taking another deep breath as she walked towards the staircase. Tony was hurtling obscenities at Natasha, in between them yelling for Katniss to come back down the stairs. The last thing Katniss allowed herself to hear before tuning them out was Clint's exasperated groan, "Just let her go."

Her feet felt like lead as she made her way up the winding stairs and down the hall. She could see the two men dressed out in all black, standing by the door Natasha had instructed her to. One of them caught sight of her and immediately started murmuring things into what she assumed was his comm link. Inside her chest, her heart was hammering at the speed of light, something turning inside of her stomach so drastically that she thought she was actually going to be sick.

As she finally came upon the door, one of the men reached out to usher her inside. She was taken aback to see that it was Rumlow, giving her a toothless smile as he opened the door for her. Standing by the window on the opposite end of the room was Alexander Pierce, looking out the window. "Beautiful place, California," he mused as the door slammed shut.

"Yes, I suppose so," Katniss responded quietly.

"Suppose so?" Pierce glanced over his shoulder momentarily. "I'm sure you could say more than just that about it, Miss Romanoff-Barton. You have been living here for almost a week, surely you've made time to explore. Mr. Stark is…well, he's Tony Stark. I think that's enough explanation," he deducted.

"Exploring really…hasn't been on the to-do list." She chose her words carefully, knowing that he was as unpredictable as they came.

Pierce nodded, turning away from the window to pace behind the desk. "Understandable. There are, of course, more important priorities. Priorities that I'm glad to see you have placed accordingly." He paused, looking up at Katniss. "The flash drive is back at the Triskelion being disposed of."

"Good to, uh, good to know."

"You wouldn't happen to know who sent Agent Romanoff on the mission to retract such data, would you? Because whoever is trying to get their hands on classified information needs to be…well, informed that it is not their place to be aware of such things," Pierce explained.

Katniss shrugged. "I don't really know," she replied. "I'm just here to do as you asked."

Pierce's lips spread out into a thin, uncomfortable smile. "Of course. Your propos have been looking nice, might I add; in the next few weeks we'll hopefully be airing the first wave of them." The propos had been the next rung of the ladder that Pierce was insisting she climb. She'd been sent the audio scripts for video commercials that Pierce and SHIELD were hoping to start airing, discussing the aftermath of New York two years later and how it had made America stronger as a whole. Mindless government tactic, yes, but Katniss had no choice but to go along with his wishes. So, she'd sat in her room at ungodly hours recording herself read these scripts and sending them on towards Pierce, who was planning on using them right down to the last syllable.

"That's great," Katniss said, the fake smile matching her strained voice.

"And your family? Are they aware?" Katniss shook her head almost instantly, the blood pounding in her neck as she thought about Natasha. For a moment, she could have sworn that he didn't believe her and that she was caught in the lie she'd told, but the harsh glare in his eyes softened and he nodded. "Good, good."

"Speaking of your family, I have another assignment for you," Pierce continued. "I'm sure you're aware of Mr. Stark's upcoming meetings." That was a legitimate surprise to her; she hadn't been expecting for Tony to do any business related things, but of course, he was a man of his word and if making his reasons for being out in California genuine, he would pull out all the stops. He dismissed the slight shake of her head with a wave of his hand. "Not to worry if you don't, we'll get you prepared."

"Prepared? For what?" she asked hesitantly, afraid of what the answer would be.

"We want for you to accompany him at these meetings; be there to correct him if he says anything out of line, stop him when he starts to say too much. If there's any of you that these people would be willing to believe over one of the most influential men on the planet, it would be his goddaughter." Of _course_ that was where this was going.

"Anything else?" Katniss implored through her gritted teeth.

Pierce paused for a moment, walking around the desk he had been standing behind so he was only inches away from her. "Actually, I just want to take this small opportunity we have to clear up some things between us." Katniss swallowed hard.

"Alright."

"You are aware that everything you do does not come back to you, but to your family, your team, and SHIELD as a whole, no?"

Katniss raised one of her eyebrows in curiosity. "I was aware of that when you first came to me."

Pierce nodded. "Good, good…" he trailed off, a toothless smile sliding across his lips. "We wouldn't want for you to have to say goodbye to your parents and Captain Rogers for a few years when they go on that operation in Iran. Truly would be a shame, wouldn't it?"

All of the color left Katniss' face as Pierce stepped even closer, resting one of his hands on her shoulder as he leant in. "You haven't convinced them very well," he chided, whispering in her ear.

"I know," she whispered shakily, terrified that if she dared to move an inch, he would kill her on the spot. She had been caught, he _knew_ and she knew that he knew. It made sense, why this visit was a house visit instead of the usual transmission. "I'll convince them."

"No_,_" Pierce hissed. "Convince me."

With that, he gave her shoulder a squeeze and stepped away from her, the snake smile back on his face. "Good day, Miss Romanoff-Barton," he addressed her in a strained voice, nodding as he moved past her.

Once the door closed behind him, Katniss crumpled into a chair and started to name her presidents backwards.

**. . .**

Katniss didn't know how long it had been when she finally picked herself up out of the chair and made her way out of the little room. In truth, it had only been a few minutes, but to her, it had felt like hours. Pierce and his guards were long gone, and Katniss had no idea how they'd made it out of there without a trace. Brushing all the hair out of her face, she tentatively started down the stairs with bated breath. If Pierce had been dumb enough to go out the front door, he'd crossed Tony and the others in his path and they were already extremely unhappy with his being there.

Once she got down to the living room, she was greeted with the abandoned couches and no one in sight. Sighing, she ran her fingers through the hair on her scalp. "Guys—" she called out, only to be interrupted by someone tugging on her arm. Whipping around, terrified, she was relieved to see that it was Clint. His face was in a grave expression, the hand that wasn't wrapped around her arm over his mouth, his index finger pressed against his lips. Still slightly startled, she let him pull her along through the hallways, dragging her through a doorway next to the staircase.

There was little-to-no light as Clint pulled her down the stairs, the door shutting behind her. She could hear the murmur of voices somewhere down below—Katniss was assuming that this was Tony's hidden basement. Moving blindly, her feet met ground and Clint's hand removed itself from her arm as they moved around the staircase. Natasha, Steve, and Tony were all standing on the opposite side of the small room, a little more light shedding on them. Natasha, who had her hand resting over her chin, looked up to see a perplexed Katniss. "Nice to have you back," she mumbled.

Katniss hardly had a moment to register anything before Clint of all people, grabbed her by the shoulders and started yelling. "Pierce? Really?"

"Clint, don't—" Natasha sighed, but Clint wasn't hearing it.

"_No,_ Natasha! I want to know why Pierce is coming around, why she's being called on missions, why your flash drive went missing, I want answers, goddammit!"

If she hadn't been busted before, she was busted for sure now. With the little strength she had, she shook Clint off of her and took a few steps backwards, hands knotting in her hair. "I couldn't tell any of you!" she finally shouted, already choking up. "He threatened all of you, not just me; he's still threatening me! Why do you think he made a house visit this time?"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Tony said, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "What do you mean, '_this time_'?"

Taking a deep breath, Katniss looked around at the group of people and blinked back tears. "Pierce was the one who was in the office that night with me at Tony's business party, he's the reason I was recruited to go on that mission—I was supposed to stop Natasha from retrieving that information but I didn't know it and when he found out he made me send the flash drive and now he's coming here to threaten me to ship you all of to fucking _Iran—"_

Steve interrupted the middle of her rant. "Iran? Wait, how in the world did him being in that office lead to us being shipped to Iran?"

Panting and feeling as though she was on the verge of having another panic attack, she shook her head profusely. "Look, I don't know, he just wants for me to do his dirty work and cover up _something_, I don't know what it is that he's doing but he wants me to be the distraction! The propos and all the missions and the press meetings he wants me to go to, it's just too damn much!" Katniss wailed.

"I told you she couldn't handle this on her own," Clint mused in Natasha's direction, Katniss' head snapping up to glare at her mother.

"Wait…you told him?"

Natasha frowned. "I had to. The minute I saw the Trojan drive gone, I knew that Pierce was up to more than just making an already wounded girl hurt even more."

"Trojan drive?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, the flash drive with the information Fury wanted for me to get off Lemurian Star; I made a fake copy with a Trojan waiting for whoever tries to plug it in. If Pierce has it, like she says, he's not going to be too happy with what he gets."

"Oh my…what…_why would you do that_?" Katniss screamed, rounding on Natasha. "You're the one I'm trying to protect, why the _hell_ would you let me give him a fake version! He's going to kill all of us now; he knew I told you in the first place and when he gets that flash drive—"

"Katniss, don't yell at your mother, she's just trying to help you." Clint scolded.

"_Don't you get it, you can't help me!"_

It was silent for a moment, tears streaming down Katniss' face as she stood there and stared at the concerned faces of her team in the dim lighting. Finally, Steve sighed and started talking. "We can't not implement Inferno, not after right now."

"Inferno?" Katniss inquired. "What…what's Inferno?"

"That's not your place, Rogers," Natasha warned.

"Natasha, we have to. Pierce is hunting her down; the minute he makes a big enough weak spot in her he's going to take her out. One less Avenger he has to worry about."

"You genuinely think he's up to something?" Clint asked.

"He has to be; why else would he have targeted her? Why not any of us? We have to act now, Inferno has to be set and in motion the minute we get back upstairs."

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? What is Inferno?"

Tony, who all but had his face in the corner, responded to Katniss' question. "Inferno was the plan we made back when we thought you were going to be a SHIELD agent. We all wrote it out when you were in therapy for your legs, because we thought you'd never have the legs you had before that Chitauri stabbed you, and all…hindered agents have to have a contingency plan if something goes wrong. In your case, it was the matter of protection. One of us was to be with you at all times on any mission you were assigned, there was to always be an open comm and transmission line; we had that plan down to a T. Then you decided to go the consultant route and we edited Inferno just a little bit. Basically, if anything's to happen to you at any point, whether it be by an outside force or SHIELD itself; if you're being targeted and the threat raises in any dramatic way, one of us is to go with you to a safe house and the rest of us are to fake your death, or at least, your missing-in-action status until the enemy is eliminated."

Katniss blinked a few times, another tear escaping her. "So, what you're saying is that Pierce is the enemy now?"

"Pierce was always the enemy, Katniss," Clint corrected her. "And we know that now, now that he's showed up and you've come clean about it. You're not safe."

"Neither are you!" Katniss said, her voice rising slightly in exasperation. "None of you are, now that you know what I'm doing for him!"

Natasha rested a hand on Katniss' shoulder gingerly. "But we're not worried about us. We're not the one that he's really trying to take out. He's playing your fragility to his advantage, trying to warp your mind before he ultimately uses you as a weapon or takes you out."

"He's had this place bugged for months," Tony explained. "It was only a matter of time before he overhead our conversations."

"Then _why _are we discussing this down here?"

"Basement's hidden, no one knows it exists."

Steve cleared his throat. "So when we leave this room, what's the plan going to be?"

Natasha squared back her shoulders. "I guess you two will leave—"

"Whoa," Katniss interrupted her. "What do you mean, _you two?"_

Clint rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. "Back when we wrote up Inferno, we didn't really expect for the two of you to have gone through such a nasty breakup, much less a breakup at all, and seeing as how Tony's in no shape to take you and Natasha and I are on a mission, Steve's the next in line. If we're being honest, Steve was the top of the list anyways."

"Anyways," Natasha cut back in. "You two will leave, get to the safe house, and we'll take on Katniss' mission from there, along with our own."

"No!" Katniss jumped in. "We can't. You can't. He'll know."

"Katniss, he already knows—"

"He wants me to go to Tony's meetings tomorrow with Tony, I can't back out now or he'll know something's up. If we're trying to pull one over on him and get me out of here safely, I have to go."

"Meetings?" Tony asked. "I'm doing a press conference tomorrow." It all made sense in Katniss' head, why Pierce really wanted her to go now.

Natasha sighed. "Fine. Tomorrow, as soon as that press conference is over, Steve and Katniss will get back here, grab their bags, and get the hell out of California. Is that much agreeable for now?" Everyone nodded. Natasha stepped a little closer to Katniss, pulling her into a hug. "It's going to be okay," she whispered.

Katniss couldn't help but to shed a few more tears, burying her face into Natasha's shoulder, trembling. She felt another pair of arms wrap around her back, and then another, and finally another. The group hug didn't last long, thanks to the persistent beeping noise coming from someone's pocket. "Jesus, how do you get service down here?" Tony muttered as the group hug dispersed.

Natasha pulled her communications device from her pocket. "You don't need a cell phone tower to get one of these transmissions—"

Her voice fell off the deep end, freezing in the midst of her tracks. "Nat," Clint coaxed. "Nat, what's wrong?"

"Fury," she said in a strangled voice.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm evil (and tired) so that's where I choose to end this little chapter. What do you think about Pierce's little home stop in as well as the impromptu, urgent team meeting in Tony's hidden basement? Bit of a dialogue-heavy chapter, but the action's building and we're getting to my favorite parts of this story. Also, Christmas break is well on its way and that means more updates! Also, Steve and Katniss being off the grid together? That could get a little interesting. Of course, no plan goes along without a hitch when it comes to these guys, so let me know what you think may happen! On the bright side, you now know why this story is entitled why it is, but there's also a bigger reason that I named this story Inferno. You'll just have to review to find out why ;)**


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